So it's been... three weeks?

It's Saturday night. At 10:50 p.m. I'm in bed. And I'm updating my blog.

You're probably thinking exactly what I am... Now? After nearly a month?

Simply put, I suck at blogging.

There's been too much going on. I have been to 8 bridal showers in the last five weeks. Worked two weekends in a row. Joined a gym. Starting reading a riveting memoir (Sarah Palin's for all you die hard conservatives reading) and also started the process of packing up my stuff. Because, ya know, I have to move.

So allow me to digress on the last jumbled paragraph.

Lots of people getting married these days. Matter of fact, my cousin Ben's wedding is tomorrow evening, which kickstarts four weekends straight of weddings, weddings, and more weddings. Which means showers, showers, some bachelorette parties and more showers too. Some for me, some for friends. Course, I took some pics (you'll have to excuse the shortness in my grammar. Keep in mind, it is late).

Best friend Jackie's shower (Married on 6/8)

Shower for me, thrown by my sister (In case you forgot, married on 6/22)

Random foot shot from Sara's shower (Married 6/2, so next Saturday)

Showers are fun and if you have never experienced one, this is what you have to look forward to. The current stockpile that's been chilling in my basement.

Next item of business: Work. Since I started back at the nursing home working a different position, I have been keeping busy with working every other weekend. However, since I have a million wedding related events that are scattered across my schedule, I've had to work out some scheduling by working two weekends in a row which made me feel like I had even less of a life than before. When I was teaching, I had weekends off and completely took it for granted by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING following the bell ringing on Friday afternoons. Now that it's crunch time with wedding stuff I'm beginning to pine for those coveted free weekends.

Never take anything for granted, they say.

Oh, and Dust and I decided to buckle down and do something for ourselves by joining the YMCA. You're probably laughing if you know me well, seeing as how I DON'T work out, but we have actually been having a really good time at the good ol' Y. I really like the community feel of the place and also enjoy the fact that it has a pool. Our apartment downtown is two blocks from a YMCA so we are looking forward to walking to and from the gym on a (hopefully) daily... okay maybe weekly, basis.

 

Cue Chariots of Fire theme music

Dust has a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with my iPhone. He's not really one for pics on the indoor track, and I guess I don't blame him.

I finally finished the third (and final) book in the Hunger Games trilogy and since I wasn't too satisfied with the ending, I had to come up with a solution to the bitterness by moving on to a new book. Luckily, I do work at a nursing home where elderly residents are constantly trying to pawn off their old, unwanted books to our library. A couple of weeks ago, 101 year old Jonathan (who recently upgraded his transportation mode to electric scooter) rode on up to my desk and asked me if I wanted Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. I'm not necessarily a Palin fan but I did read her daughter's cheesy memoir last summer during my "Teen Mom" meets "Dancing with the Stars" reality TV addiction. So I accepted the book from Jonathan, got to reading, and am nearly finished with it. Sarah Palin is, in a nutshell, annoyingly fascinating. I got so into the book that I turned to Netflix to watch her short-lived TLC nature show on Alaska. Her book? Not bad, but I now understand why her show only lasted ten episodes.

So now that I'm nearly done with the Palin book, I had to find something new to read. Dust and I hit up Half Price Books today and just in time for Memorial Day, everything in the store was 20% off! I hit the jackpot and bought a biography on Abraham Lincoln and stayed in line with my nerdy, history-major mind by purchasing a book on all the "First Families" of the White House. I can't wait to delve into them both.

I am especially excited to say that FINALLY, my love of all things historical has blended with Dusty's love of fantasy/fiction (typically, Dust is not a huge fan of history at all, and I am not a huge fantasy person, so we tend to clash on our reading choices). Well, when Dust purchased Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer recently from Half Price, a small glimmer of hope began to burn inside of me. Sure, it's fantasy, and borderline blasphemy to combine the nation's greatest leader with stupid vampires, but ever since he finished it, Dust has been OBSESSING over Abe Lincoln.  Not sure if you were aware, but there's a pretty big anticipated biopic coming out this fall/holiday season starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Abe. Dusty spent the rest of tonight researching everything there is to know about Abraham Lincoln and chatting about how excited he is for the movie to come out. I was beaming from ear to ear. It could (dare I say it) be the sweet start to a shared love of American history.

Not to mention, the vampire killer book is being made into a movie too... and Dust can't wait to see that as well. It's released on June 22nd, but we can't go because we have other stuff going on that day...

We move into our apartment this Friday, the 1st. Well, Dust moves in, and I move in all the stuff that you can see above in my stockpile picture. I won't be moving in until after the wedding. Nevertheless, we are very excited to call the place "our own."

Nothing too new to report on the nanny front. Still love my job and can't believe I get paid to spend time with this adorable little one every day. I never thought I'd say it, I really didn't, but I love babies. Well actually, maybe Grace is just the exception to my general rule ;-)

2 cute 4 words.

Grace is great because she allows me to get a ton of wedding stuff done in her down time, which includes time in her jumper, time in her bumbo (like the above photo), hanging underneath her playset, and if she gets really bored, movie time while I sit closely nearby.

Gracie watching Beethoven on Netflix. Love the universality of my iPad.

There is surely more to report on and write about, but the night has come to an end, and I can barely keep my eyes open. I had a very wonderful shower this morning thrown by the Wahl women and close family friends of Dusty's, followed by the baptism of my future cousins' adorable baby girl, followed by the earlier mentioned bookstore trip, followed by hauling my gifts into the basement to add to the pile, followed by a meltdown related to wedding stress, followed by a pretty loving fiance who let me cry for about five minutes before cheering me up, tucking me in, and pressing PLAY on my DVD player so I could watch another one of my stupid/embarrassing movie choices.

Tonight's choice? Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

It's the little things.