Lola Goes to Chicago, and Other Tales of an Absentee Blogger

Yoo hoo!

I'm alive! I took an unplanned hiatus from the old blog just because. I am sure that your life hasn't been the same since. You probably also have been wondering what I've been up to lately. Well, lucky for you, I'm here to recap the last couple of weeks.

When we weren't watching the Bachelorette, doing back-breaking yard work, or making babies cry --

 

Evan and I hit the wedding circuit, and we hit it hard. First up was Katie, my best friend growing up, who got married in the prettiest Nashville wedding (no, I didn't see any characters from Nashville the show. The last time I was down there, I did see Deacon in a bar, though. I think he's off the wagon.)

 

Susan strikes back.

 

This wedding had a photobooth, which is pretty much all I need to have a good time. I was so pumped about the photobooth, in fact, that I did not take one single picture on my own camera. You'll have to take my word that everything was beautiful.

 

Next up, my friends Courtney and Keith got married in Chicago, the City of Love.

 

Before I can explain the exciting happenings at this wedding, you first need to meet Courtney's cat, and my best friend, Lola.

 

 

As you can tell by the look in her eyes, Lola is Crazy. In fact, she makes Mabel look semi-well-adjusted, which is quite difficult to do. Anyway, Courtney told me before the wedding how sad Lola was that she couldn't celebrate the union of her parents with them, screaming during the ceremony, scratching people during the cocktail hour and just destroying things at the reception. So, being the good friend that I am, I decided to take one for the team and bring Lola Dear along.

 

And that leads us to a new segment here on the tudor house:

 

 

Or, The Story of Lola and The Big White Wedding.

 

The three of us -- the three best friends that anyone could have -- hit the road Friday after a long day at the office for me and Evanshine and a long day terrorizing people for Lola.

 

 "I'm going to wreak so much havoc at this wedding, it will go down in the history books."

 

 

As you know, the Kentucky countryside is a beautiful thing, and we all enjoyed some stellar views.  We got tired, though, and stopped at a roadside hotel in northern Indiana to rest up before making our triumphant arrival in Chicago on Saturday morning.

 



Lola requested extra pillows from the concierge because she is high maintenance.

 

 

The next morning was more of the same, and before we knew it, we had arrived in Chicago, the City of Light. We quickly got ready, threw on some jewels, and headed to the wedding.

 

Miraculously, Lola behaved herself at the ceremony, and then we all headed to the reception, where Lola was so happy to see her parents that she actually got a little bit drunk and kind of embarrassed herself by hanging out in a vase of flowers all night.

 You can tell by the crazy look in MY eyes that Lola had rubbed off on me a bit here.

 

The happy fam



 

It was such a fun wedding, capped off by delicious Chicago popcorn! Lola and I are working on convincing Courtney and Keith to do it all again next weekend.

Happy Anniversary to Me (and Evan)!

Look, Mom, we're still married one year later!

A little anniversary note I typed to myself on the new (old) typewriter Evan gave me. 

The traditional one-year anniversary gift is paper, and you'll note that he gave me a pack of paper, too. You'll also note that people in 1926 were quite serious, as there is no exclamation point on this old girl. This morning I briefly considered switching over my blog entirely to typewriter, but it's loud, difficult, and I'm afraid I couldn't convey the generally high excitement level in my life without my favorite punctuation mark.

It's an Underwood, just like my boy Frank uses in House of Cards. 

Just call me Frank.

In this glorious first year of marriage, Evan and I have both learned many things. He learned not to dry my sweaters, and what a peony plant looks like. I learned not to worry about what the annual $60 charge to XBOX Live is for, and that it's not polite to hit snooze more than two times in a morning (the fact that I learned this does not necessarily mean that I've been able to stop myself from such rude behavior).

I've come to grips with the fact that I may never break Evan of the habit of leaving half-drunk cans of Coke perched precariously in the refrigerator, though I've made it clear that I will not be cleaning up the mess if one of them spills.

Evan has come to understand that my drawers simply are harder to close than his are, so they may just have to be left open a little bit from time to time.

We've both learned that cake one year later is not quite as wonderful as it was when it was first baked … but it's still pretty delicious.

Let the Wedding Planning Begin!

It's been reported that Pippa Middleton's boyfriend, Nico, a stockbroker from London, popped the question while the two were on holiday at the beginning of this month! This is great news, both because I'm happy for Pipps, and because this means a few trips to London for wedding showers, hen parties, and the wedding itself are in my future! As you know, Pippa was a bridesmaid in my own wedding earlier this year (standing in for Kate, who was with child and didn't want to risk leaving me high and dry on my wedding day), so I can only assume that I will be getting the request any day now, as she starts to plan her big day.

Me, Pippa and Nico hanging out one night recently. We're the three 

best friends that anyone could have.

You probably remember that Pippa was kind of inconsiderate and wore white to my wedding. I have forgiven her and will wear whatever dress she asks me to wear. Evanshine may not be able to attend as my +1, so I've decided to take Mabel if he can't make it. She, however, hasn't forgiven Pippa and just may wear some wedding-themed attire to Pippa's nuptials.

To get ourselves psyched up for Pippa's big day, and to help Mabel pick out her outfit, Mabel and I had a fully voluntary bridal inspired photoshoot this weekend. We will probably get one of these images blown up on a 20x30 canvas to give Pippa and Nico as a wedding gift. If you'd like to order one for your personal use, leave me a message in the comments section below and I'll send you the high-res version of the image you'd like.

As you can see, Mabel makes a truly radiant bride. You can see the love she has for me and for her future husband clear as day in her eyes.

Does that lace look familiar to you? It was leftover from my Ugly Angel's dress.

And this is where things started to fall apart.

Like any great model, Mabel is a bit temperamental, and when she was done having her picture taken, she was ready to get outta the studio. So this is a very limited set of photos. But instant classics, I think you will agree.

Happy Half-iversary, Dear Evanshine!

Today, Evanshine and I have been married for six months and are halfway to being able to ethically keep all wedding presents that we received! We haven't been doing the best job of remembering each month-iversary, so to make up for that I've created the best half-iversary present ever, posted below. I don't know if you knew it, but the traditional gift for a six-month anniversary is blog posts. Or so I've heard.

In honor of our six month-iversary, I've put together a sampling of some of my favorite wedding photos. Now, it wouldn't be right to give you, dear readers, a full viewing of these pictures, since it isn't yet our full anniversary. In six more months, I hope that Evanshine will be over his blog stage fright and ready to make an appearance, and at that time I shall post the photos in full. At this point, however, as it is only halfway to our first anniversary, I am only able to give you the following, half of which are only halfway untouched by my skilled Photoshop hand. Does that make sense?

To play along at home, dear readers, see if you can tell which half are the real pictures and which half have been tweaked.

By the way, our photographer was Honey Heart Photography here in Lexington, and they were wonderful to work with. We absolutely love the pictures, and have many framed at home sans my personal touch. You'll see in another six months just how great they are :)

The groom and the ring bearer, just shooting some pool before we head to the church. 

 Me and my wonderful bridesmaids! I must say, some of them were a little difficult. Pippa was kind of a B and wore white dress, Miley refused to put on a dress at all, and Fat Amy was so lazy she wouldn't even stand up with the rest of us.

My mom had a blast. Helping me with my bustle was probably her favorite task.

True love.

Just a few of our guests. Princess Kate would have been in the bridal party, but we weren't sure when Georgie was going to arrive so she just sat this one out. Obviously she did a reading, though.

By the way, True Story: Evan really did try to send Pete Rose an invitation. I refused. I had a feeling that if he showed, Evan might pay more attention to him than me...

My brother Ross, not holding any cats.

  

You know you make me wanna SHOUT!

And finally, my favorite part of any wedding: PHOTOBOOTH! 

Guess which one of these was really in the picture? 

As you can at least halfway tell, it was a wonderful night! Happy half-iversary, Evan! Love ya like a husband! Check back in 6 months for the unedited version :)