Baby Shower!

This post is super late, but the pictures are too bright and pretty not to post.

Towards the end of April, I hosted a baby shower for Jim's cousin. Other family members had offered to help, but I was hell bent on getting it done by myself. One of his other cousins laughed when I told her this - she said she is the exact same way and not to let everyone's offers to help derail me. Man, I love his family!

Actually getting everything done took a full 2.5 days of working non-stop. The majority of the prep was spent on food stuff. Not the best pictures, but this is what the kitchen looks like during the middle of a food storm.

By the time the morning of the shower rolled around, things were finally looking pretty and clean. We cleared out and rearranged our livingroom so we could bring in tables and chairs for a full sit-down lunch. I think it turned out really well. Looking back though, I think we could easily accomodate even more people next time and since our house is so white and neutral, I could definitely go with colored linens to really liven up.

After all the work in the kitchen, the food turned out great! One of his aunts thought I had bought everything already made and she was speechless when she found out that everything (dressings included) was made from scratch, with the exception of the bread. The only thing I didn't get a chance to photograph was dessert - it was just too hectic changing from lunch to dessert set-up. The options included mini cheesecakes, carrot cake cupcakes with ginger-orange cream cheese frosting and white cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting.

The food didn't stop at dessert. Those cookies cooling on the racks above? They are mini two-bite cookies that I put into takeout boxes for the favors. I think they might be my favorite thing of the whole set-up. :)

Overall, the shower went really well. Everything turned out as I envisioned it and his cousin and the rest of the guests seemed to have a really good time. While it was a ton of work, I was so happy with the finished product. :)

The best laid plans

can so quickly go awry. I had all sorts of plans for this weekend. Things are finally getting back to normal at the office, but it's taken me a couple of weeks to get things back on track at home. But, my dvr is finally cleaned out, I'm slowly catching up on blogs and I'm making plans to see friends that I've neglected over the past month or so. So this weekend, I was going to finish catching up with home stuff. Yeah, not so much. :/

I should backtrack for a minute. I'm turing the big 3-0 this summer. With the moving and my dad passing away, I really let the whole healthy eating/working out fall by the wayside, but have decided to really make an effort for the next couple of months so I can look and feel great on the big birthday. I've finally gotten back into a good rhythm at the gym and am LOVING the group classes I've been taking. Both the instructors and the other members are awesome - so much so that it's become part of my daily socializing. :)

Yesterday, I was in step class and managed to accidently step onto the step behind me and rolled my ankle. One minute I was standing, the next I was sitting on the floor. Oops. I tried to pull a mind over matter that it wasn't that big of a deal and finished that class as well as another weights class right afterwards. Felt fine til after I showered. I ran a couple of necessary errands and by the time I got home, I could barely put weight on it and was almost in tears. Yeah, I think it's sprained. :/

I'm so so so pissed! I've been icing it and sucking down Advil like it's candy since yesterday afternoon and it's still swollen and really painful to walk on. I'm toying with the idea of scheduling an appointment with my doctor for some time this week. It's just really crappy timing and I'm already mouring not being able to hit the gym this week. Blah!

As for those plans to do a bunch of stuff around the house? Um, I'm laying on the couch with my leg elevated, playing on the computer. Not the worst way to spend a Sunday, but also not what I was hoping for.

Knee deep in pig ish

I'm buried at work. Just buried. We're all a little punch drunk and starting to find humor in the oddest things. I may get Sunday off. Maybe? Who knows. At this point, everything since last Tuesday is all blurred together. Thank god for vanilla lattes from Starbucks and catchy, crappy pop songs on the way in to work - they're the only way I'm making to the office somewhat sane these days. There is a ton of fun stuff that I want to post, but the [pig]shit hit the fan (or should it be snot?), so it must wait. On that note, I need to go grab a few hours sleep before the alarm goes off well before even the birdies are awake. I leave you with this: