Sights of a Long Weekend

If every weekend was a long weekend, I'd be a lot happier. Anyone else with me? Even though this week is going to be crazy, it feels a lot more manageable when it's only 4 days long.

Last night before we left the Cape, we enjoyed some of the Cape seafood...

Arctic Char and...

Haddock with some stuffing on top. Speaking of stuffing, I am obsessed with my mom's stuffed mushrooms...

Once we were nice and full we headed home. It was nice to drive home on a Sunday night with no traffic, last time that will happen this summer haha.

Today I decided to enjoy a leisurely Monday morning with some oatmeal pancakes, made Jenna style...

Later, I ran some errands, can anyone else spend hours and half a paycheck at Target? I love that place. I found some cute bins for our wedding flip flops. I mentioned my love for water at weddings, but I have an even deeper love for flip flops at weddings. Love for dancing + hatred for heels = love for flip flops.

You know you weddings might be taking over your life when you find these flips flops on your kitchen floor, and random baking items for a bridal shower you are attending on your kitchen table. But it's all worth it WHEN...

My first wedding gift comes in the mail. Wahoo!!! I guess we are really getting married huh? YIKES...haha just kidding, pretty sure 3 people referred to Eric as my husband last week, and I pretended to be married to him at the dry cleaners. Guess it's time to take the plunge.

Has anyone seen the commercial (I think it's for a wedding planner) where the girl is supposed to be planning her wedding but is doing yoga outside next to a waterfall instead? Eric said that reminds him of me. I can choose to take that as, "Kelly you are so zen" or "Kelly you are so not doing anything you should be doing", I'll take the first thanks :) Kelly = Zen.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and if you have not visited my sister's blog to tell her how AMAZING she is for running a half marathon this weekend, what better time than now?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer...

My blogging consistency really leaves something to be desired lately and I'd like to make promises that it will improve in the next few weeks but I can't do that because my schedule is absolutely insane. With the exception of a few lucky days here and there, I basically have something after work every single day until school is over. Even though some of the stuff is fun, I am not a fan of having that much stuff going on. I seem to remember this happening most Junes, and I think this is just the way it is going to be in my adult life. However, I'd like to request to move my beginning of June birthday to a less insane time of year because right now it just feels like another thing to deal with- especially this year when my birthday falls on a Monday filled with stuff I don't want to do. Perhaps I'll just cancel it entirely so I can feel like June 7th is just another annoying day, rather than a day that should be fun, but really is annoying. Ha ha.

Anyway, I'm trying to enjoy every single moment of this weekend before life gets any more out of control than it's been. I've been enjoying a bit of this...

and some of this...

and of course...

I love summer, even if it does make things crazy. Also, do not be fooled: I do not love pink mint chocolate chip ice cream because of color alone, it is also a delicious peppermint flavor that cannot be found elsewhere. Yum.

My amazing sister also ran a half marathon today! You should go visit her blog to congratulate her...

My dad told us to look enthusiastic haha.

I got lots of compliments on my sign for the other runners...

Though for me it's more like Keep Calm and do anything else but Run. Oh well.

Other than that, we busted out some wedding stuff, I read a lot of my book (South of Broad by Pat Conroy) and I attempted to write some report cards, which really was more like I starred at my computer and discussed my overall hatred for report cards. That's close to doing them right?

We are driving home tonight and have plans to be both productive and relaxed tomorrow (a few errands, some laundry, some yoga, some pool...). What is everyone else up to this long weekend?

Just Dance, It'll Be Okay

Yesterday was another crazy day. I guess I'm not going to be on a regular posting schedule at least until the school year is over. Work has been insane this week because of end of the year testing and the fact that it went from normal to 95 degrees and my school does NOT have AC, so it's pretty disgusting. Yesterday I was genuinely concerned I was going to lose a child to heat stroke so I tracked down a hose and used my thumb to create a sprinkler. The kids got soaked and were dry again in 5 minutes. I love warm weather, but I'm happy to go back to normal-warm today. Also I have yet to start report cards, can someone kick my butt into gear?

Last night we had our second wedding dance lesson. I didn't mention dance lessons the first time because I was in no mood for them last week. I was about 5 seconds away from punching my overly happy instructor in the face. But this week I decided to go in with a new attitude. Sure, dancing is not my thing- in fact its probably the opposite of my thing, but I know I will not enjoy 200 people watching me dance with Eric, so I might as well enjoy the practice when no one is watching. Besides, there is just something very humorous about the instructor.

Can you pick out which one he is? Also I find the more fun you pretend having, the less ridiculous false praise he gives haha.

Good times.

Today I had to take a bit of a mental health day from work (which I basically never do) so that I could FINALLY get into Boston to do my first dress fitting, which was supposed to be at the beginning of May, oops. Life = crazy. The good news is, the dress fits, just have to maintain the healthy eating through the events of late May and June, hopefully that is do-able.

My other major accomplishments of today included having our AC fixed in our house (it just died last night and it was a stroke of luck that I was planning to be home today and didn't have to beg my mom for my one millionth favor). I also scheduled about 100 appointments for the week before the wedding. It's going to be a crazy few weeks, but I feel lucky that I'll have a light work schedule at the time, just tutoring instead of full time kiddos galore!

This is random but this post has been a bit random anyways SO...I have a food recommendation for you guys. On the way home from yoga the other day I stopped by Whole Foods and Eric wanted me to get him some chips. There are a LOT of random random chips there and it was nearly impossible for me to find him just the normal standard chips he was looking for. But then I came across these...

Hummus chips? SOLD. I love hummus, I love chips, and I can only eat baked chips so I figured these would be perfect. Then I tasted them and they were so flavorful I thought even Eric would like them and I was right. I got the sesame garlic flavor and they basically tasted like Chinese food in a chip. I don't really see any major connection between these and hummus taste wise but they are made using chickpeas which means they are good for you! I definitely recommend these.

I'm headed to the Cape tomorrow after work for some Memorial Day weekend fun, including watching my sister kill her first half marathon! What are your plans for the long weekend? (or the normal weekend cuz I'm thinking Canadians probably don't get two long weekends in a row, right?)

And I'm Back in the Game...

So, healthy living? I swear I used to blog about that. Let's get back to it shall we?

Sunday night I jotted down my work out plans for the week to make sure I get back on track. It looks like...

Monday- Power Yoga 1 Hour

Tuesday- Treadmill Walk 30 Minutes

Wednesday- Power Yoga 1 Hour

Thursday- Spinning 30 minutes, Power Yoga 1 Hour

Friday- Treadmill Walk 30 Minutes or Rest

Saturday- Elliptical 45 Minutes

I find when it comes to getting back on track, the key is to plan, write it down, and reward yourself. Last night my reward for going to yoga was some yummy coconut sorbet gelato from Whole Foods...

Hard to say what I love more, those gorgeous flowers or that yummy coconut sorbet?

Reward #2...

Iced Passion tea from Starbucks. If you haven't tried one of these, do it. They are amazing and need no sweetening at all.

Tonight after work I tried to re-create the roasted red pepper mashed potatoes from Sarah's wedding. I started with my some of my absolute favorite veggies...

I peeled, sliced and cooked the potatoes as normal and roasted the red pepper in the oven. When both were close to being done, I browned some garlic in a little bit of olive oil. Then, I put all the veggies and garlic/olive oil into a big pot to mash. I used a mixer, but I think next time I might even consider using the food processor to mix up the flavor even more. The result was...

I served them with some of my favorite Trader Joe's dumplings...

Delicious and quite healthy too. They didn't quite taste like the ones at Sarah's wedding but I'm sure those had a lot of butter and cream, so this is the healthy version.

*Twenty bonus points if you can figure out what movie my title is from...haha unless it's from more than one movie and then minus 20 points for me!

Have you ever tried to re-create a meal you made at a restaurant? Did you make it healthier?

Another Old Friend, Another New Last Name...

Happy Monday kids. Good news! I haven't crashed yet. I went to work, tutoring and even went to yoga after- unlike last Monday when I debated so long I was too late to go and then flipped out about how I can't handle life without sleep. Apparently in fact I CAN handle life without sleep. The trick is to stay out late on Saturday night and then wake up and start drinking again on Sunday, Duh. Maybe I should take the cockyness down a notch so I don't end up DEAD tired tomorrow haha. I think really my body is just slowly realizing that May and June are insane months and there is nothing it can do about it!

Anyway, I know you are anxiously awaiting the recap of Sarah's Wedding yesterday and here it is...

Sarah's wedding was Eric and my second Jewish wedding and can I just take this moment to say I love Jewish weddings? My top 3 favorite parts of Jewish weddings include #1- The fact that the ceremony can be anywhere and the rabbi will come. Well, maybe not anywhere...but it doesn't have to be in the Synagogue. Cool. #2- The tradition of the groom walking down with both his parents and the bride walking down with both her parents. Feminist Kelly loves this. And since I'm an equally opportunity person, I also like that the guy gets to walk down, that's nice. #3- The bride and groom going up on the chairs...though it looks a bit scary. I've been up on a chair once but I was like 13 and weighed significantly less haha. So, now that we've established my overall love for Jewish weddings, let's continue...

I was going to have you watch Sarah walk down the aisle, but I can't figure out how to put a video into my blog now that I switched blogging software from Blogo to Echo. Any advice? Instead you can see her after she walked down the aisle...

During the ceremony the rabbi asked us not to take pictures...aka I hate him haha I kid. He was good, EXCEPT for that. I decided to respect that since I didn't know if it was Sarah and Brian's wishes. Well, by respect I mean refrain from taking 300 pictures during the ceremony but still take 2 illegal videos at the end. SORRY! I love the glass breaking thing! (#4 thing I love about Jewish weddings)

Have I ever told you guys about my love for cocktail hour? It's just so relaxing and fun and I love little appetizers and crackers. Plus, I feel like I have so much more energy before I go in an eat a massive meal. I hit food coma at both weddings I attended this week, and I don't even eat that much at weddings! But anyway, cocktail hour was fun- I learned my video camera can zoom (it's a flip video- if you don't have one, get one- they rock) and I chatted with 2 girls I went to high school with and their fiances- we are ALL getting married this summer haha.

For some reason my photos of their first dance REALLY leave something to be desired, but it was lovely. Their song is one of my favorites "True Companion" by Marc Cohn. If you don't know it, you should. But I did get dinner (and all I got today was a "really?!" from the girl next to me as I was taking the picture, haha, well deserved.

Dinner was steak and panko crusted chicken, with...wait for it...THE MOST AMAZING ROASTED RED PEPPER MASHED POTATOES. Let's just say I am going to recreate these, probably tomorrow. They are going to taste as good because I am sure they are loaded with butter that I can't eat. But still. Brilliant idea I tell you. Of course I didn't eat the steak but the chicken was yummy. I didn't have more than a bite of the cake but it was pretty....

Then came one of my favorite parts, the chair crazyness. Eric was recruited to hold Brian up, which it turned out was a good thing since we did want Brian to survive his wedding haha.

And then Sarah and I went from being crazy high school seniors...

(from left- Susanne, Sarah and me)

to...

Getting married 7 weeks apart...to these boys...

Oh and yes, I did sit with Eric yesterday, NOT at the random table- everyone at my table I had met including 2 girls from my high school and their fiances and two of Sarah's friends from childhood sleep away camp that I met while I was in high school. Yay! I've been thinking about who the lucky ones to be at MY random table will be...haha stay tuned, only fun people are allowed there.

So, another old friend, another new last name. Please remind me to change that on my place cards at the wedding haha.

Time to go read some blogs and relax. Check back for the amazing success of my roasted red pepper mashed potatoes tomorrow. Way too much cockyness for one post, Kelly.

Wedding Weekend Part 1

Good morning! I got a whopping 4 and a half hours of sleep and I'm ready to RALLY for Wedding #2! Or at least I'm pretending I'm ready?

Wedding #1 began yesterday at 3 in the afternoon at a church in Eric's hometown. My picture of Eric walking down the aisle came out seriously blurry, so just make a mental picture in your head. I did get some good shots of the bride walking down with her Dad...

And I did manage to get him leaving the church...



I'm glad my photographer is a beautiful woman so if she gets in everyone's pictures like this one did, she'll only make them better haha.

So anyway, after the ceremony we took a LOT of pictures. And by we, I mean, the bride and groom and bridal party. I talked to the wives of the other groomsmen, one was from Nebraska and one was from basically everywhere but currently lives in South Carolina. They were nice and kept me entertained which was good because we had to have taken pictures for over 2 hours. I also managed to receive a job from the church wedding coordinator person...hold a bunch of bows... haha



Pretty random...and I look pretty random in that picture...who is that? lol



Watching people take pictures rocks. At least I didn't have to be in them :)





When we got to the reception, we were ushered into a special room for bridal party and hung out there for awhile until they kicked everyone out who wasn't bridal party for the introductions. At that point I went upstairs with the other girls and almost sat down at the wrong wedding, oops. It was then that I learned I was at Table #1. So, you know the absolutely random table at every wedding? (well I assume at most weddings anyway...I've only been at it once before), that was TOTALLY Table #1. It was made up of 2 of the grooms brother's friends, 2 of the brides friends from Canada (where she's from), 2 husbands of bridesmaids, one of the bride's friends from around here, a wife of a groomsmen and me. I'm pretty sure no one knew more than 1 other person at the table. However, table #1 clearly rocked...



We declared this kid "Joey" because he looks like Joey from NSync. He took that better than I would've expected. Anyway, my table was a lot better than I would've expected- I think even Eric was a little jealous, and that was good because you take the corner I was in and look to the direct OPPOSITE end of the room and there was Eric haha.

I know you guys will be interested, so here is my dinner...



Yes, I did get made fun of by my new friends for taking a picture of my meal haha, all for you guys. It was chicken stuffed with stuffing, and a side of mashed potato, cranberry sauce and veggies. I have to admit it was pretty good but I didn't eat a ton of it because I'm pretty sure that is butter I can't eat spread across the top. I survived though, I find by the time I actually get eat at a wedding I'm barely even hungry anymore.

There was also the typical speeches, dancing and all that fun stuff. I got a picture of me + Eric...



And I got one of Eric and his best bud. Is it weird that Eric's friends always feel the need to stand on something tall to take pictures with him? haha



And, in typical Kelly and Eric fashion, the night ended with the pitcher of water (this time stolen instead of bought haha)











Normal.

So now, it's the next morning and I am about 5 minutes away from showering, getting ready and doing it all again for one of my absolute best high school friends. I'll be back with a recap either tonight or tomorrow...for your sakes I hope it's tonight because I can't promise what kind of state I'll be in after this weekend and then working tomorrow. Oh boy!

Life Without TV and Internet?

Happy Friday!

The story of my little student who promised to freeze my age so he can marry me in twenty years gets even cuter...

On Thursday I sent my class this year home with little "invites" to my wedding ceremony, in case any of them are at the Cape this summer. I didn't tell the kids what it was because I didn't want them to pressure their parents, but I guess this particular kid kept dropping the envelope on the way to the bus so my aide told him it was about my wedding and he needed to make sure his mom got it.

So he got home and his mom was like, "what is this?" and he says, "an invitation to Ms. ____ and my wedding!" hahahaha, this kid cracks me up.

The story might have been better if I was not Ms. ____ but most of you know my last name anyway so just insert in the space :) I don't know what kind of crazies are reading this blog you know?

Anyway, this my weekend of 2 weddings and I was supposed to be at a rehearsal dinner tonight. However, we had a quick change of plans when Eric woke up this morning to our cable, internet and phones down and a cable spread across our driveway. Somebody had to stay home to let the Verizon people in so since Eric is in the wedding and had to be at the rehearsal, that person was me. Even though I felt terrible for not going, it was pretty relaxing being at home with no TV and internet, even though I didn't know what to do with myself at first. I also quickly realized I didn't really have any food because I wasn't planning to be home for many meals this weekend, so Upper Crust pizza it is!



That's a small (do I dare ask what a large looks like?) pizza with mushrooms, grilled chicken and garlic. I normally can't eat pizza at restaurants because I can't do cheese but Upper Crust doesn't bat an eyelash when you say you want a "red" pizza. Love it.

Also, once I was allowed to leave the house (the TV and internet is fixed now, in case that wasn't obvious!)- I got some frozen yogurt. The girl who made it for me happened to be one of my brother's ex-girlfriends, but did I pay any attention? of course not. I think I have the WORST memory for faces of anyone ever, not exaggerating. As she's handing me the ice cream she's like, "you are Jake's sister, right?" and my brain was like "searching...searching...who would be asking you this?" (Jake is 7 years younger than me, so I don't asked if I'm his sister all that often). Fortunately I did manage to figure it out, hopefully quickly enough to not look like any more of an idiot than I already did. I would like to defend myself by saying Jake has had a lot of girlfriends...which is true, he once dated two girls at once in like sixth grade, Caroline had to tell him that probably wasn't the best idea. But, that isn't even a really good argument since I've only actually met a few of them and this particular one I met several times...oops! Is anyone else terrible at remembering faces? I have a great memory for "stuff" about people, but not what they look like!

I also tried on two possible dresses for the wedding tomorrow (I am wearing my engagement party dress to the wedding on Sunday).



Dress #1- Purple, Strapless







Dress #2









You may recognize Dress #2 cuz it's actually Caroline's and she wore it to my engagement party. For some reason I think it may have looked better on her... haha

So, which one do you like better?
I'll be back bright and early Sunday morning with a recap of wedding #1! What is everyone else up to this weekend?!

Mid Week Happiness and The Joys of Water

Grr Ecto I hate you.

Whew, thank goodness it is hump day. Just ask Caroline, I clearly have no idea what is going on today!

Thank you for all your wonderful book recommendations yesterday! I had actually read a lot of the books you recommended, which is good and I added the others to my "to read" section on Goodreads. I ended up going to a used bookstore today where I had a giftcard and I bought Man of my Dreams, by the same author as American Wife and Prep (which I read back in college) and South of Broad, which was recommended to me by my friend from work. I'm not sure which one I am going to read first but I'll let you know how they are :)

Besides new books (well, new to me), other things that are making me happy today are...

Candy Castle, this amazing candy store in Lexington Center...







Look, I totally didn't even need to hand sort the M&Ms for Sarah last weekend!





I don't even really buy candy there, I get their delicious frozen yogurt, but it's so fun to look at candy brings me back to the days I used to ride my bike to the candy store at the Cape. Good times.

Speaking of frozen yogurt, discovered another hidden gem for ice cream today in Waltham...Pizzi Farm! I got black raspberry chocolate chip, yum.



And finally, my water bottle labels arrived today from Custom Wrapz!





I have a bit of an obsession with water at weddings, I need it (after the drinks). So our water bottles will be put out at the end of the night when the bar closes and water is what everyone wants. Knowing my friends, they'd probably get it anyway...











And not just our friends, Eric was the one who paid the waitress to give us this pitcher haha...







At Timna's wedding, I got myself a glass of water from the bar at about 9pm, and then stored it under the table until the end of the wedding when I wanted it. And yes, several people did ask me where I got the water. No one thought I was that crazy since they were wishing they had some water too. Not that I'm not crazy...

Anyway, what's your favorite candy or what was your favorite as a kid?What do you always wish for at weddings?
I've got a crazy day tomorrow and Friday, but I'll try to post at some point. Have a good rest of the week everyone!