sick & wedding progress

like what seems to be the rest of Erie, i am sick. my roomie, sister & her hubs, aunt & cousin and my mum are all sick. i'm sure more Erieites than that are too...i've spent at least 24 of the last 36 hours asleep, if not more than that. i'm feeling better this morning, but granted, it's barely 8am.

haven't done too much wedding planning lately. too busy and exhausted after the work day to think about it, and too sick this weekend to bother. Josh and I did a little cake testing at my "aunt & uncle's" (my mum's cousin = my aunt) on Thursday. she made an amazing chocolate layer cake with chocolate-caramel ganache center, caramel butter cream frosting, caramel and chocolate drizzle and chocolate shavings on top. it was AMAZING (pic below).

also, i asked my "cousin" (above "aunt & uncle's" son) to whip up a song for Josh & I to dance to at the wedding. he seriously can "whip up" a song in like, a week. we don't really have a "song," more so...music that we like (Nine Inch Nails, Audioslave, Daft Punk...not really wedding-slow-dance-song-material) and TV shows that we always watch together (Futurama, Simpsons, Fringe...). none of these will do much for our first dance at the wedding. my cousin Paul is an amazing songwriter and told me a few days ago that he has a tune and he's going to get really working on it within the next few weeks. i'm so excited! he is currently living in New York and playing around with his band, Paul and The Patients (@PATPband for you twitter folks). he also does a song of the week http://patp.bandcamp.com/, and wrote a song for my grandpa in December, but i can't find that link!

hope everyone's weekends have been good so far, and if you're sick too, i hope you feel better soon!!

i'm trying to be awesome today

in honor of Jamie and her post last Wednesday, i'm wearing my very own pink scarf today!

my boss got me this scarf when her family went to the Caribbean several years ago. i forgot all about it!

we only do EXTREME

i don't think my family believes in doing things "the easy way," or "simple." (at least, i don't!) So when my sister Rachel's baby shower rolled around, we knew we had to go EXTREME. we also knew this because her hubs works at the church, there are a lot of church people they are close to and need to invite. we had her shower on sunday and the guest list kept climbing up from 80 people, and we knew we were still somehow leaving people out that are important in their lives and we wanted to attend.

that's a lot of people. that's a lot of food.

we had an amazing array of food and even more so, desserts, made and provided by our awesome family and friends.

we had wegman's subs and carrot cake thanks to my auntie mary, my mum made tortellini salad, veggie pizza, two amaretto trifles, and cut up all the fruit (and bought most of the gift baskets and decorations), my auntie paula made her amazing lime vinaigrette salad dressing as well as a chocolate peanut butter cake and her own version of a "baby cake." friends of the family also made butter cream wafers, chocolate cherry brownies, oreo truffles and nut roll. and i provided the salad and fixings and made lemon cupcakes with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. mum also made nut and semi-sweet/white chocolate bark and i made peppermint bark for the favors.

yeah. it was a lot of food. it was also amazing. we had a lot of fun and everyone we knew helped out a lot. mum and i kept the freaking out to an *extreme* minimum, and rachel did a great job opening all her presents and talking to everyone and refusing to let herself be overwhelmed.

we can't wait to meet this little baby girl! every day she comes closer to joining us! she is going to be amazing and so loved and supported. can't wait!!

here's some pictures!

dreams of flying

the other night Josh and i started talking about weird dreams we've had. he's told me that there have been times in his dreams where he has realized something isn't right, figured out he was in a dream and taken advantage of it. like flying. and killing criminals. and teleporting.

this idea totally freaks me out.

i've definitely had one of those dreams where you KNOW something isn't right (um, had a dream the other day my roomie was presenting a not-even-close-to-completion interior designy-type project to my boss. roomie is an amazing girl with a communications degree. however, as far as i can recall, he project in the dream was turning out AWESOME). so yes, i knew there was something wrong here. but i couldn't make myself realize it was a dream and take advantage of that.

seriously though! being in control of your subconscious? that's nuts. Josh has told me i can train myself to do this. just make a habit of looking at something (i think it needs to be the same type of thing), then looking away, then looking back. when you look back in a dream, it's usually not the same as it was before, which will trigger you to understand something is wrong, therefore a dream.

have you ever had a dream where you took control? what did you do? i would probably try to fly, that sounds cool. or spend lots of time underwater without the need to breathe. that'd be sweet.

one major event at a time.

i've been one-track-minded for the past month or so, focusing on my beautiful sister's baby shower that's coming up in a little over a week and a half! pink & brown, polka dots, cupcakes, salads, favors, photography, table set-up...all this has been racking my brain. i'm totally loving it. i just want it to be here already so i can start doing all the baking & cooking/preparing that i have to do!

i haven't been thinking about much wedding stuff lately, still throwing ideas around in my head for how to set up the cupcake table, stage & table decorations, how to cut down the guest list, preparing myself to book the honeymoon, planning a fitting & ordering dresses day with the girls and how-the-heck-am-i-going-to-have-enough-money-to-pay-for-this thoughts when i realized...

holy crap February 20th will be SIX MONTHS from the wedding. where did the last 3-4 months go? what have i accomplished for the wedding?! am i running out of time-HOW AM I GOING TO GET EVERYTHING DONE!?

breathe. there is plenty of time. there isn't THAT much to do (psh, yeah right). i think February is going to mark the month where i stop throwing around ideas. stop going back and forth. time to start making decisions.

i'm all about 2010

yes, resolutions ARE stupid. i'm not sure if i ever really made an "official" New Year's Resolution in my life, or kept one...for longer than a day.

last year, i posted about the things i was looking forward to in 2009. all of those awesome things happened and were even better than i could have imagined. and 2010 is gonna be EVEN BETTER!

things i'm looking forward to in 2010:
* rachel's baby shower (2 weeks away!)
* becoming an auntie and welcoming baby girl lusky into this world!
* registering for awesome STUFF. yes, i will be registering for Rachael Ray awesomeness and sweet bathroom crap
* my bridal shower!
* summer
* josh's brother's wedding
* wedding planning, josh & i's wedding, and most awesomely: week-long honeymoon in MEXICO
* moving in with josh!

ok, ok, that was a lot of gushy josh & me looking-forward-to stuff, but um, can't help it.

things i'm gonna do differently in 2010, aka goals:
* read more
my goal is to read 6 books that i've never read before. i feel like this is a decent amount, considering the crazy busyness i'm going to face this year!

***NOW ACCEPTING BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS***

* eat better
of course, gotta throw something like this in. i need to get over my sweet tooth. stop making brownies for no reason. don't get dessert at restaurants. stop grabbing handfuls of peanut M&M's every time i walk down the stairs at work. must limit myself to special occasions or only a few times a week!

***WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE CANDY YOU GOT FOR CHRISTMAS?***
are you supposed to shove it all down before new year's day? give it away? don't start eating better/dieting until you finish your candy??

* attempt to exercise
yeah, i suck at this. i need to do something with myself! really, i need to find something i enjoy and find some sort of consistency.

***PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME SOMETHING FUN THAT IS CONSIDERED EXERCISE***

* be more focused and organized
at work, at home, at life. also should throw out crap i don't need anymore. yes. must throw out lots of crap.

* spend less, save more and give even when i think i can't afford it
i need to stop buying things. i need to put away money for the future. i need to be willing to give to others that need it more than me.


i think those are some good goals. we'll see how they work out. as of day 7 of 2010, i've been doing ok on the "eating better," haven't started reading anything new yet and have no desire to exercise. so...that's...good.

yeah, so, in closing, give me some awesome book recommendations!!!