The Know Nothings

A couple of weeks ago, ANPAC, the company that my mom works for, had their annual trivia night to raise money for The United Way.  They usually have themes and this year's theme was the 80's.  Jessica and I were sooooo excited!  We heart the 80's!  By the time we got there though, mom had already chosen our team name...the Know Nothings.  Seriously??  Not the Max Headroms.  Not the Go Gos.  Not the Material Girls.  Not anything that has to do with the 80's at all!!  Since we don't ever decorate our table, the least she could have done is come up with some sort of 80's themed team name!  Geez!  Oh well.  We still had a great time--even though we sucked horribly.  We usually win the trivia contests--or at least come in somewhere in the top 3--but not this year.  While we didn't come in last, we were somewhere in the middle and that is not good--especially because Jessica and I claim to be aficionados when it comes to that decade. 

One of the categories had to do with 80's music.  We were in heaven!!  They would play part of a song and then you had to fill in the next few words.  Everyone was laughing at us because we knew (almost) all of the songs and would sing loudly to all of them.  It brought me back to a simpler time when the cool thing to do at our house was to grab a hairbrush and jump on the stage (my bed) and  rock out to some 'Talk Dirty to Me' until we couldn't rock any more.  Ahhh...those were the days.

Our team consisted of the usual...mom, grandma, Sheba, Jessica, Pat, Carla and her daughter, and me and Will.  I had a great time hanging out with everyone. 

Almost forgot about Bubbles!  His only contribution of the night was totally WRONG!!  The question was 'Name the original 3 Taco Bell sauces'.  I immediately turned to mom (who was writing down the answers) and told her the answer...mild, hot and fire.  Well, Bubbles chimes in and argues with me that the answer is mild, MEDIUM and fire.  I know he eats a lot of Taco Bell but, come on.  Mild and medium are the same flippin' thing!  But he kept insisting that he was right so we used his answer.  Bad move.  He was wrong and I was right.

Will in his sexy new glasses.

Jessie, grandma and me.  Grandma also made a funny.  The very first category was about cereal and the first question was 'Which athlete has been on the Wheaties box the most?'.  We all agreed that it was Michael Jordan.  After the round was over and we all turned in our answer sheets, Kyle Bosch (the emcee), read the first question and right before he was about to give us the answer (and the room was VERY quiet at the time), grandma yells out Michael JACKSON!!!  The whole room errupted into laughter!  It was hilarious!

Mom!

Maybe next time we can start our winning streak again.

Samuel Cedars

This is where we will be on 4-28-12.  Less than a year!!  FINALLY!!!!!

Hopefully it will be sunny on that day (unlike today--in these pictures).

Pathway from the parking lot to the outdoor pergola and ceremony area--also a trail to the reception hall.

The big porch off the back of the reception hall.

This is looking from the porch of the reception hall to the ceremony site.  It's really pretty and really GREEN!  The ceremony will be around 4:00 or 4:30 so we won't have the lanterns lit so, we are thinking about putting some of our tissue paper/coffee filter balls on the top of the poles.

The pergola and the ceremony site.  On the wedding day, this will all be filled with white chairs and the pergola will be decorated.  There will be a tissue paper/coffee filter ceiling and also a curtain of the tissue paper/coffee filters in the back.  When I think about it now, it might kind of look like a mullet.  Might have to re-think the pegola decorations.

This is the view from the pergola--looking into the guest seating area.  In the top right hand corner is the reception hall.  Not a bad walk at all.

Top of the pergola.  Too bad it gets dark too late in the spring.  Would have loved to have an evening wedding--with the lights all lit up.

At the top of this picture is the owner's house.  This is standing on the pergola--facing the crowd and looking to the right.

Standing on the pergola--facing the crowd and looking to the left.

I think we are going to put some planters with some really pretty flowers on either side of the steps.

Halfway between the reception hall and the ceremony site (looking at the pergola).

I'm so happy to finally be under a year now!  Yay!

Long time no blog.

It has been a while since I've been on here.  Not much has happened though.  Pretty boring around our house.  Just a lot of medical talk, alumni events and poop scoopin'.  I went to the MVC tournament in St. Louis at the beginning of March--the alumni department co-hosts the hospitality room at Union Station for Bears fans.  I was up there for 5 days and they couldn't even win the tournament!  Will has been doing his clinical rotations and is currently finishing up his 3rd (only 5 more to go--woo hoo!). 

I gave Waffles and Grover a haircut. 

Waffles has a ridiculous underbite.

We also got Grover fixed.  Doesn't he look pathetic?  I couldn't bring myself to put him in a cone of shame so I just tried to keep him from licking it.  I should have bought the cone though--he ended up licking himself raw!  He's MUCH better now but those first few days after the surgery were bad.

We went to mom's for easter dinner and the dogs got to lick the pork roast pan.  The furry dog in the center is my little 7 lb., 16 year old pomeranian, Barsuk!!  It was freakin' hilarious!  Sukie stood in the middle of the pan and licked and licked and licked and the other dogs were licking the outside of the pan so hard that they were turning the pan (and Barsuk) in circles.  I love my Sukie.

At the end of March, my Aunt Pam (who lives in Arizona) passed away unexpectedly.  My mom, grandma and Aunt Sheila all headed out to AZ for the funeral.  They stopped along the way in Midland, TX to pick up my Uncles Todd and Jeff and my cousin, Perry.  I took some pictures on my mom's camera today and brought it home with me to get my pictures off the card and found these pictures from their trip.

Mom and my cousin, Ellary's little boy, Bodie Huck Smith.  Bodie was in the hospital for quite a while after he was born.  He was born with (as Ellie would say) his 'guts on the outside'.  He was a sick little guy.  But now he is all better and skinkin' adorable.  Can't wait to meet him!

Bodie and Bodie's daddy, Blaine.

I asked mom about these and she said that she told Perry to take some pictures and this is what he took pictures of.  And, yes.  He totally looks like a Mexican drug dealer.  We are all very aware of this.  Mom thought they were for sure going to take him when they got stopped by border patrol.  They didn't.  But that sure would have been funny!

Uncle Todd, mom, Aunt Sheila, Perry, Grandma, and Rush Limbaugh after the funeral--and the guy in the back with the yellow and black shirt on is the guy my mom should have married instead of my dad.  His name is Bob and he likes NASCAR.  Wait.  Nevermind.  I don't know what I would do if I had to watch even one NASCAR race.  Also, that really isn't Rush Limbaugh.  I know that because my grandma would never have her arm around Rush and also because that is my Uncle Jeff.  Unfortunately, he also ACTS like Rush.

Hehe.  Mom said she was spitting spit wads in his mouth.  Guess you had to have something to do to pass the time.

Ellie and Bodie.

I asked mom if she happened to get any picture of the Baxters (Pam's family) while they were out there.  Nope.  She FORGOT.  She sure as hell didn't 'forget' to take 50 (i swear) pictures of these...

Seriously.  And she couldn't even roll down the window to do it!!  Good grief, mom!

Oh yeah.  I also got my wedding dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Vera Wang, bitches!



Richie and Kristen got married!!!

Last Friday Will and I and most of Will's family boarded a plane to Las Vegas to watch Will's little brother tie the knot.  They got married Saturday aftnoon (1-22-11) at the Paris Hotel and Casino.  Did I mention that I hate flying? 

I have been to Vegas twice before but it has been about 12 years since I was last there.  It has grown quite a bit.  Lots of new hotels and casinos--we were there for 3 days and we didn't make it past Treasure Island.  Even though there is a ton of stuff to see, I won't be sad if we never go back.  We're not into the whole party and club scene and everything is so expensive--plus it's dirty.  Geez, do I sound old or what?

Registration area inside of The Paris Hotel.

Will's cousins Kenzie and Tyler.

View from our hotel room--backside of the strip.

The first of many trips to the cash out machine.  We didn't make all of our money back but I did win $130.00 on the Sex and the City penny slot machine!  Yes.  They had a Sex and the City slot machine and it was AWESOME!!

This is in the center of the casino inside the Paris.

The fam wandering around the casino.

Linda watching Will lose money before heading to dinner Friday night.

Our Vegas crew waiting in line for the Buffet of Buffets.  There were a lot of family and friends that came out for the wedding so it was hard to get everyone to go and do things as a big group so we spent most of our time with Aunt B and the Zongkers.  Left to right:  Tyler, Aunt B, Will, Julie, Linda, Wes and Kenzie.  Kenzie and Tyler are Wes and Linda's kids.  Brenda and Linda are twins.

The Bellagio was right across the street from the Paris so we were able to watch the fountain show that the Bellagio puts on.

Me and Will outside the hotel before we walked the strip after dinner on Friday night.  We walked so much while we were there.  My legs and back were killing me by the time we left. 

This is the Cosmopolitan Hotel--it just opened on December 15, 2010.

Inside the Cosmopolitan.

Will and I in front of the HUGE chandelier in the Cosmopolitan.  If you look closely you can see a bar and a spiral staircase inside the chandelier.  Crazy.  It was about 3 stories tall.

Richie is about to get married!!!

Richie and Will.

Kristen and her dad.

The beautiful Kristy on the left and the maid of honor, Cassie (?? not really sure of her name) on the right.

It's official!!

Mr. and Mrs. Gray

Only 458 more days...not that I'm counting or anything.

Yes.  Those are all snow crab legs and I can have as many of them as I want!  When we first got to Vegas we found out about a buffet deal that they had going on.  It was called the Buffet of all Buffets and what you did was pay $50.00 per person and you got a wristband.  That wristband would allow you to eat at 7 different buffets in various hotels throughout the city as much as you want in a 24 hour period.  We ate dinner the first night at the World Buffet in the Paris Hotel and breakfast the next morning there, as well.

After the wedding on Saturday afternoon, we still had a few hours before our 24 hours ran out.  So Brenda thought that it would be a good idea to walk to the Rio and try the 2nd highest rated buffet in Vegas.  The Rio is not on the strip but we had seen it the night before while out walking and saw that it was just a few blocks behind Caesars Palace.  WRONG.  Try more like 5 or 6 miles along a really busy street that intersects a major interstate.  After much bitching and moaning, we finally made it there.  The Rio buffet is the one that had the delicious crab in the above picture--plus they had sugar free desserts--including gelato and chocolate creme pie!!  I was so happy!  It's not easy to be on a diet and in Vegas.  Anyway, we eventually found out (thank you, Kenzie) that there is a direct shuttle with handicap access for Beverly's electric wheelchair from the Rio to The Paris and it's free!!  Maybe we should have looked into that before we started walking.  But I swear it looked closer than it was.

Inside Caesars Palace

Inside the Luxor.

Apparently Dwight Schrute also works the ticket counter at the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor.

Ewww...

Inside New York, New York.  Made out of Jelly Beans.  Will wanted to eat it really bad.

A little blurry.  Sorry.

In front of New York, New York walking back from the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor.  Some drunk guy offered to take the picture.  It took him a long time so we thought he was getting several pictures.  NOPE.  Just one and it's really blurry.

Our favorite prostitute business card hander outers.  Kenzie collected a ton of these so I had to get a picture of her with the Girls Girls Girls guys!  This is my favorite picture of the whole trip.  Love it.

Sunday, our last night in Vegas, the Zongkers, Brenda and me and Will all went out to eat at Cabo Wabo on the stip.  Yes.  I know it's Sammy Hagar's restaurant but it was in a cool location, we could eat outside and the food was reasonable.  And after eating there, we found that the food was pretty good!

Will, me and Aunt B at Cabo Wabo.

Oh yeah.  Barry Manilow also performs at the Paris--don't be jealous, Autumn.  And no.  I did not see him.

Vegas was fun but I'm definitely glad to be home.  Missed my puppies.  Congratulations Richie and Kristen!!!