One of my little cousins is getting married in April!!! She's not so little anymore, but she still feels 12 to me, like she was when I moved to Richmond! Anyway, a few weeks ago, my mom, her neighbor, her mom and I threw her a wedding shower.
I agreed to help with some of the decorations and such. We all know that my friend Laura is the queen of decorating for parties and she's REALLY REALLY good at it. Mine was a little tamed down compared to all the intricacies you can usually find at a party thrown by Laura, but I thought I did ok, especially for a not especially crafty person.
Little Banner
Food plates and signs
Cupcake toppers
Dessert table
Three little tea lights with Washi tape on them, those were the party favors
Basket of party favors
Sooo... apparently I didn't even get a photo of my cousin! :( Whoops... Buuuut after the shower, my mom and I came back to my house and then went to dinner at my favorite Greek place in Carytown with Laura and Kathryn. Afterwards we happened to see the "Hot Now" light on at Krispy Kreme, so we took mom in for her very first hot Krispy Kreme. We made her wear the hat, too! I'm pretty sure she liked it!
So, I got a full time job at the place I have been working at for a year and a half (as a consultant). One of the many advantages of the old job, was that I had a parking pass to the Main Street office, which was just a few blocks from the Landmark Theater. We used to park there when we went to go see shows at the Landmark and stop in to use the rest room. On the way out we would always grab swedish fish and sour patch kids. On my last day I grabbed some swedish fish and sour patch kids for nostalgia's sake.
Now onto more important things, anyone remember these old ads?
I always think, when something fun or exciting happens someone says, "What are you going to do next?" and of course you are supposed to answer... "I'm going to Disney World!"
And true to my tradition between jobs, accidentally after my first job out of college and on purpose ever since, I took the week off in between jobs. While new jobs have perks, they also have at least one setback, or at least one for me. That setback is the lack of vacation in the first year of the job. So, to make up for it, I usually go for an unpaid vacation in between jobs. Sooo... in between my old job and my new job I went to Disney World! Though this is a correct statement, we were only actually at Disney for one day.
My friend Laura, who is pretty much always on board for an adventure and vacation, kindly decided to vacation with me to Orlando for a little fun trip. We ventured out Sunday morning (flight at 7AM arriving in Orlando at 9AM) and pretty much spent the entire day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!
Hogsmeade
Hogwarts Express!
As avid of a Harry Potter fan that I am, I had never been to Harry Potter World. Laura, who isn't really into the books and/or movies, has been there several times! But, she agreed to accompany me to Harry Potter World, and let me tell you, it was worth it! I was super excited to be there, and she likes Universal anyway!
Monday we woke up and went to the Titanic Experience, and while the tour was a little long we did get a fun surprise at the end! Also, we missed out on the photo opportunity to stand on the ship bow... shucks! I would say that it was a good and educational little adventure.
Titanic Experience
That afternoon, at my request, we hung out by the pool for a couple hours, enjoyed some drinks from the poolside bar, and relaxed in the sunny warm weather. Sheraton said that the pool is 70% heated... yeahhhhh I'm not sure which 70%, but it certainly wasn't the part we went in!
Pool, drinks and warmth!
That night we hit up Downtown Disney for dinner and a nice walk through all the stores.
Laura at the Lego Store in Downtown Disney
Just a little curtsy!
Tuesday we went to Epcot and Hollywood studios... I was persuaded to go on the Tower of Terror, which wasn't really as bad as I remembered it being, but still not my favorite ride. We also went on the Aerosmith roller coaster, which I remember doing over and over again with a friend from High School at her first trip to Disney.
It's the happiest place on earth!
Laura's favorite princess!
Wednesday we finished off our trip by going back to Universal for the day. Funny story, on Sunday we had gone on the Harry Potter ride and one of the kids (high school) in front of us took pictures on his phone of EVERYTHING in the castle... on Wednesday when we went back, Laura decided to take my phone and replicate the situation. What we didn't anticipate, though, was having this little girl behind us that kept walking into us, touching us, and being very close to us. Her parents never said anything to her... Though we tried to get a good photo of her, unfortunately it didn't happen.
Hogwarts
See that little purple shirt to the left? That's the girl!
About to go on the Harry Potter ride!
No idea...
???
It's the Fat Lady!
Sadly, on Wednesday evening, we boarded our plane to Atlanta and finally to Richmond... At the Orlando airport we bought dinner, and I accidentally bought chips that I don't really like. I gave them to Laura but realized in the middle of our flight that the chip bag was looking like it was about to explode... check it out!
Bag of potato chips before we got on the plane...
Bag of potato chips in the air... crazy!
Then we returned to cooooold Richmond very late in the evening. Though the trip was short, it was a perfect little adventure for the END OF WINTER and in between jobs!
Ok, my goal of 6 books this year is going ok so far! We are almost in mid March right now and I have completed 2 books, so I'm doing quite alright.
Book number 2:
Cheesy romance novel... but it was a good vacation read! I just went to the library today to return the other book I started last year but never finished... paid my $5 fine and then borrowed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, which have gotten RAVE reviews from pretty much everyone I know! I'll report back!
I lied to you in the last post, because there wasn't anything super exciting about it. Buuut... here are some additional photos that I will share with you...
During my basement cleaning, I had to say goodbye to a cherished item in my house...
I don't have a photo of my original Poang chair from Ikea, but the above is a replica. Mine was more of a navy color.
I went to sit down on it and it broke...
Booooooo!
Then I took it apart and it went out in the trash today... RIP chair
Pieces of my beloved 9 year old chair!
This is Millie showing off the ottoman that went with the chair... that got donated
Thennn... there was my really old dell laptop...
Took out the hard drive and smashed it using a hammer. This computer has now been disposed of, too!
Found this gem when I was cleaning... it's a magnet of a Bible Study retreat that my study had maybe 5 years ago?
Aunt Zilla bought Millie a shirt... looks like Millie needs to lose a few pounds!
Lobstah races on Christmas!
Millie's Christmas toy!
So there you have it! For real, this was actual assortment of randomness! Hope you enjoyed the photos :)
Since last time I've written, it seems a lot has happened. Mostly including a few snow storms! :) Most recently several inches then ice, then MORE snow! Buuut, in the past few weeks I haven't been super productive but you can see what pictures I have on my phone.
PS One day you'll actually see some progress in my basement... that day isn't today!
Craft Day - Laura and Kathryn made Burlap Wreaths, I made brownies :)
One of the snow storms :) love the Google+ effect!
Opened a Dove Chocolate and saw this message... Must have had me confused with Laura, Anna or Emily, because we ALL know that I'm not the first to hit the dance floor!
I mean, I read this book in high school, and remembered liking it, so when I saw it on sale for a few bucks, I picked up a copy (the book cover doesn't look like this one, but this is what I remembered from high school). It's definitely an interesting book and reading it again shed some new light on it, I think, because honestly I don't really remember what I learned the first time. The biggest takeaway this time was that at the beginning I assumed he was in some sort of mental institution, based on how he was describing things, and that was pretty much confirmed at the end. But this was essentially the story of how he pretty much had a mental breakdown. Poor Holden Caulfield! Anyway, I'm glad I read it again, it's strange feeling like you're in someone's head!
School is cancelled because:
1. It is too cold outside (I will admit 10 degrees is pretty cold... but I never got school cancelled)
2. It is GOING to snow (note it doesn't actually HAVE to snow)
3. It snowed an inch
4. It snowed three days ago and they can't manage to clean all the roads off
I will say they aren't great at cleaning roads quickly, and there is a lot more ICE than snow, but goodness, metro Richmond schools were canceled for the entire week this week because it snowed on Tuesday evening.
