Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

So, last Fall KJ officially hacked off the apron strings and moved way down south, away from home cooked meals, free rent, and the comfort of his hot girlfriend's arms on the weekends... and into a man-crib with a bunch of guys across the street from a college campus in Azusa (can't you practically hear the party noise all the way from here?).

I've really missed having him around, not that we really saw much of each other, but just that I know he won't drop in and beg for food unannounced, or just be a phone call and cash bribe away from watching my kid's for an afternoon...

I pictured him in a dumpy little rat hole, possibly camping out on the floor in shreds of newspaper and sawdust surrounded by empty Slurpee cups and beer bottles. Sleeping in the clothes he wore yesterday... and the day before... because Mom wasn't around to do laundry, of course. I thought there would be pizza boxes and dumpy furniture, mold in the toilet, and lots of loud noises icky smells (again... nobody to clean up the milk spoiling in the cereal bowl under his bed from last week!).

You get the picture... freshman college boy heaven!

As much as I was certain this lifestyle wouldn't bother him in the least bit, being the big sis and all I felt a bit unsettled about it. But then, on our way home from Arizona... I finally dropped in saw it for myself.

I was AMAZED,

It was tidy, there were no smells but good smells, no moldy or hairy toilets, and it was oddly quiet! (Though from the sight of the GIANT TV and handful of awesome looking guitars adorning the living room walls, he has me fooled there...)

Anyway, Mom... here is a tour of KJ's (surprisingly clean, quiet, and functional!) little pad:


Look! Clean, color co-ordinated clothes, and a slip covered couch! Impressive!


They hung WALL ART!





There are actually 2 bedrooms but I didn't want to be the creep that took pictures of other peoples rooms and posted them all over the Internet... well, Ok, I kind of wanted to be that creep, but I refrained.

Also, I didn't get the bathroom, again, the creep factor, but trust me, it passed inspection.

Aaaaanyways, this is KJ and his lover Stephen's room:




(Bunk beds, how flippin adorable is that!?)

And, get a load of this closet space, I'm positive I never EVER had this much closet until I BOUGHT A HOUSE, and even now I think he has more hanging room (that's what she said)...



After the grand tour, we walked across the street and hit up a cool local Mexican food joint. It was the kind that looks like a total dive in the daylight, but gets a TON of business after the bars close. The grub was goooooood, and I have to say, I felt a little nostalgic about the fact that my little brother had to rescue me and buy lunch when we went to pay with our debit card and he shot me a sideways glance and cooly handed the man a $20. It was cash pay only... and HE HAD CASH.


Little KJ is all growed up. And I feel pretty durn good about him.

xo

My Best Friend's Wedding (Chapter: THIS HAS GOT TO END SOON!)

Ok, so I'm toooootally not trying to rush the most important parts, that is to say the ceremony and the after party... but I literally just have SO MANY pictures of the after party, and SO FEW pics of the ceremony... I'm just going to put up the highlights and get on with life, because we've been back for over a week now and life has gone on, and there are other big events to blog about, durn it!

The ceremony was exactly went off without a hitch. It was important to Chelsea that 1. Her brother give her away, 2. Her father-in-law officiate, and 3. Special music.

It all went off without a hitch! Miracles happen every day.

Chelsea was more beautiful than I've ever seen her (and she's pretty freaking hot in case I have any one who follows my blogs in Braille...).

The after party was at Macayos restaurant at an old train station in Tempe. I thought it was an excellent choice, it had a very celebratory atmosphere about it and lots and lots of party food (we're talking margarita fountains, chips and salsa, and lots and lots of greasy dishes involving cheese and guacamole, now THATS a party, people!).

There was dancing, drinking, karaoke, and cake... all the best things in life wrapped into one moment shared with a pretty large group of new and old friends reunited. Nirvana.

Gooooooooo Crusaders!!! (Pretty good turn out for such a tiny widdle school!)


I'm kind of obsessed with these next 2 pictures... "Next time, marry a woman!,"right mom? ;)


SOMEONE wrote dirty things on the BATHROOM WALL! Sheesh, people, HAVE SOME CLASS!




So, there you have it. My best friend... is a MARRIED WOMAN!

Sucka!!!!!!

But seriously... I am so glad Chels has found love and happiness in Wady, I know there are always challenges to be faced in the road ahead, but now they have each other to face them with and I cant wait to see how Wady will change her into an even more amazing woman.

Congratulations, best friend! I love you.

xo

My Best Friend's Wedding (Part 3.)

The morning of the big day, I got up at 6 and got ready while Tyson, Steph and Jerad snored away.

Then, all the girls met in a hotel room and primped together.



It was extremely important to Chelsea that her Nana be included in her wedding. She is in a home for her Alzheimer's, and Chelsea had originally planned an early afternoon wedding under the impression her Nana would be able to attend. At the last moment, Nana was not allowed out of her home, so Chelsea (ever thoughtful problem solver), decided to take the WEDDING to the NANA, which meant we needed to be ready by 10am so the entire wedding party could make it to the home for the first ceremony to be preformed there by Austin, Chelsea's older brother.


When the party was over at Nana's we set off for a round of pre-ceremony pictures at a beautiful park in the Arizona center.



It started to drizzle a bit toward the end of our photo sesh, but we hardly noticed.


And then, all of a sudden, it was GO time.

My Best Friend's Wedding (Part 2.)

Saturday was the most uneventful day of our trip, although there was still plenty to do.

Taylor and I got together in the morning and perfected (meaning, practiced for the first time) the communion duet Chelsea had requested of us. Side note: Taylor is an amazing musician for the music makeover he gave that song. It was NOT an easy job, but he nailed it and made it look simple.

Steph and Jerad had errands to run with some family that lived in the area, and Chelsea had last minute wedding details to attend to, so Ty and I tagged along with Taylor and Dom and a friend of theirs for an afternoon of lunch and shopping before returning to the hotel to prepare for the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal was pretty low key, and it was all over and done with by early evening. We all said our good nights and Godspeeds, and turned in early.



And by 'early,' I meant 'went back to the hotel and picked up Steph and Jerad so we could go to a SECOND dinner and shop some more.'

Thats practically the same thing, right?

*We Interrupt the Regular Scheduled Programming...*

For this major announcement (well, here in my pitifully tiny fishbowl, anyway)...

Im TOTALLY bringing sexy back...

With my new SHORT HAIR.


Thanks, Skylana.

Im in love with myself all over again.

My Best Friend's Wedding (Chapter 1.)

So we're home from Arizona and finally (almost) unpacked. We had SUCH a good time, I'm just a smidgen depressed that its OVER (and by 'smidgen,' I mean 'I've been wearing the same clothes for days and haven't showered or seen sunlight since returning,' haha).

I've decided to break up the bloggage into a couple (few?) parts since we did SO MUCH in a short amount of time, and I have SO MANY pictures. So keep checkin back and I will post pieces as I have short moments of sanity!

We decided to leave the kidlets behind. I had a brief moment of clouded judgement, thinking they would be fun to show off, old enough to enjoy a road trip, and be well mannered and patient thru all the non child-oriented events of the weekend... and then I laughed at myself so hard I almost peed my pants, and called up the grandparents. Genius!

We left late afternoon New Years day, and caravaned with Steph and Jerad who were driving a car of her grandparent's to Arizona for them. Stephanie graciously arranged for us to stay a night at a half way point in Cathedral City at her Grandma's empty house to break the trip up. It worked out beautifully!

It was a great opportunity to just relax and laugh and 'reconnect' with Tyson, spending hours in a quiet car with NO Dora theme song or flying goldfish crackers coming from the back seat.

Dear Tyson: this grumpy pic is payback for being crabby to me when you got us lost. (again).:

Mmmmk, enough about that. When we arrived in Arizona on Friday afternoon, we checked into our hotel (that Steph and Jerad shared with us to split the cost, and they were fabulous roommates!), and the staff was super sweet, the lady remembered me from booking the reservation with my children squealing in the background and she upgraded us to a bigger room. Awesome. Steph and I got all HAWT in our party outfits, and then we all headed over to start the bachlorette festivities at Chelsea's.

My neighbor Alyssa Bright has quite a tasty little home business called Incredible Edibles. She is a cake genius/ artist extraordinaire, and she fashioned this delectable little masterpiece special for Chelsea's event... which we all enjoyed eating almost as much as we enjoyed playing with.

There were more than a dozen girls in attendance for the first portion of the evening, which involved delish dinner at LaBocca in Tempe,

and then we had a brief regroup back at Chelsea's for cake and presents (ok, and maybe a game or two, but you gotta be in the inner circle to get the privilege of those details!).

I guess there's not much more to disclose about the rest of the evening, as my children may someday read this blog... heh. But I will leave you with this, and I'm sure you get the idea.

Like I said... good thing we left the kids at home.