Back to School Fashion

Fashion is not - and will never be my middle name. And with back to school displays all around us I'm kinda jealous of all those who can get into the spirit and score some wonderful new items. Besides buying textbooks this week, the only other back to school shopping I've done was for 4 notebooks at $0.15 a pop at Walmart and some new purple pens. Ha ha, I know I'm such a dork!

For the last month or so I've been thinking about all the things I want to get before heading back to campus but I just haven't found the time (or any money growing on trees).  If it weren't for my mom, I would have started my final semester at ISU a complete fashion failure with nothing new. Thankfully she found me this totally cute purse from The Limited! And I love that it is big enough to handle a notebook or two so I don't have to take multiple bags to class. Thanks Mom!

 

I'm back!

I'm back to my blog and back to school! A lot of fun has happened over the last few weeks and I think we'll start back at my birthday -- August 9th.

Matt's been super busy this month with instructing courses for the recent new hires and unfortunately he was outta town for my bday. I can't really complain too much though because I've missed a few of his birthdays because of vacations (his bday is usually over spring break). So with Matt out of town, it gave me the opportunity to have a super fun "girls night out" on my birthday. With my birthday landing on a Monday this year, I wasn't sure what kind of turnout to expect and I was more than flattered to have so many wonderful girlfriends meet me out. I feel so blessed to have such a great network of fabulous, strong and beautiful women in my life! Thank you girls for making me feel so loved on my birthday. You each mean so much to me.

Thanks for taking a pic Liz to document the memory for me!

Tori Got Hitched!

Last weekend we were in Decorah for Tori & Clint's wedding. It was a great wedding and a fun weekend overall which is why I'd love to blog about it. Unfortunately, I completely failed to take any pictures. oops. And after reading Liz's blog about our tubing adventure on Sunday I know I won't be able to write anything more entertaining about that part of our weekend. It was so funny! So I'm going to "borrow" a few pics to post below and refer you to her blog instead. :)

But there were a couple details I wanted to add...

Tori & Clint first hit it off because of their mutual love of movies. They brought this passion into their wedding in the most creative way. All the songs during the ceremony were from various movies. This really made their ceremony personal and brought a fun atmosphere to the day. Also instead of traditional vows, they worte each other promises. It was very sweet and romantic, especially to see both of them show so much emotion.

They also added a lot of personal touches to the reception to make it their own. As neither of them are big fans of cake, they decided to go with pie and cookies for dessert instead. And they also fed one another sushi since they didn't have cake and pie might have been a little messy. Plus I hear sushi is one of their favorite meals. One thing that was really exciting about the pies and cookies is that my friend Jessica made them. I'm not really a big fan of fruit pie but the cherry she made was worthy of a second bite. And the frosted cookies is the shape of cakes were super cute and delish. Plus it was fun to taste some of her "professional" work. Here's a link to her facebook website! Good job Jess!

Isn't she beautiful!?!?

One of Jess's delicious cookies!

Matt and I at the wedding

Book Club goes to the Zoo

Our book club just had our 2nd annual outing to the zoo! Zoo Brew is a weekly event at the Blank Park Zoo during June and July. They have themes for each week and feature different "brews" to try while roaming around checking out the animals. The last Zoo Brew featured local wineries which is why we picked that night to attend. And apparently half of the young adults in the DM mentro area did too. It was totally packed! The wine tasting lines were waaaay too long but we still had fun! Here's a pic of the book club girls who could make it and our favorite men!   

 

 

While the boys don't ever attend our book discussions (gossip sessions), I bet they could name many of our favorites from hearing us gab about them before and after we meet up with the ladies. I think this may because we rarely talk more than 20 minutes about the book when we get together since we're spending too much time just catching up and having fun! At our June get-together we took the time to write down all the books we've read since we started this club almost 2 years ago. Some of our choices have been outstanding, some interesting but not worth rereading, and some I didn't even get to due to being busy at school. Here's our reading list from the beginning:

October 2008 – The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

November 2008 – Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
December 2008 – We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
January 2009 – Three Cups of Tee by Greg Mortenson
February 2009 – Forget About It by Caprice Crane
March 2009 – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
April 2009 – The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
May 2009 – My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
June 2009 – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
July 2009 – Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
August 2009 – Oxygen by Carol Cassella
Sept / Oct 2009 – Always Looking Up by Michael J Fox
November 2009 – Some Kind of Different as Me by Denver Moore
December 2009 – Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
January 2010 – Push by Sapphire
February 2010 – A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog by Dean Koontz
March 2010 – Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
April 2010 – Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
May 2010 – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
June 2010 – Little Bee by Chris Cleave
July 2010 – The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
August 2010 – The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd