TGIF

It has been a loonnggg & emotionally draining week, with me being sick and funeral arrangements, due to a death in my family. I am looking forward to this weekend and being with Brook. Unfortunately, it will not be a relaxing weekend! We will be in Grand Rapids for part of it . . . celebrating Halloween tonight at McFadden's and attending Jennifer and Tyler's wedding at the Amway Grand with so many of our close friends Saturday. Sunday, we head back to Jackson for our required 4 week class "Overview of the Catholic Church." (Poor Brook . . . so much driving back and forth lately.) We have to take this course to get married. I love being Catholic, but come on . . . I have been a strong Catholic my whole life and Brook is going thru the RCIA classes to become Catholic. Oh well, it is only 4 weeks and is worth it to get married in the Church. Maybe we will learn something this weekend?

Anyway, my goal for the weekend: get some pictures of the BRIDE & GROOM! Since there will only be 50 people at the wedding, this shouldn't be difficult. Wish me luck!

Home Sick

I have been feeling under the weather for the last few days and decided to stay home from work today, instead of spreading my germs around the office. And since I am incredibly bored, I thought I would do a little blogging.

Last weekend, we went to Kelly Hull and Melissa Ott's wedding. (Kelly is Brook's cousin on his mom's side.) The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time with the Bildner side of the family. Once again, I did not get any pics of the bride and groom (I really need to work on that!), but here are some of the moments I did capture . . .

Trent, Brook and Carey

Brook's parentsApril (Trent's wife) and I

Blessing of the Pets

In honor of the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, our church did its annual blessing of the pets today. Brady and Prince (Veronica's dog), along with about 8 other dogs showed up in the parking lot of Queens for the blessing, accompanied by their owners. The dogs received a short blessing and (their favorite part) animal cracker treats.

Engagement Pictures

As promised, here is the slide show of our engagement pictures. As a side note, if anyone is looking for a good photographer, we would highly recommend ours! His name is Barry Tilson - he is very reasonably priced, great to work with and does awesome work.

A Busy Weekend

We had another busy weekend (what's new?) I took Friday off and my sister-in-law, Jaime, and I took Maria, Connor and Luke (a little boy she watches, who is the same age as Maria) to the Treehouse in Chelsea. Maria had a blast! Luke was busy playing with the trains, so Maria left him behind and made new friends. She kept asking other kids, "Do you want to be my friend and play with me?" It was so adorable. We tried to make a day of it, but the kids (and grown-ups!) were exhausted by early-afternoon.


Luckily, I had time to take a quick nap before Brook arrived at my house Friday evening. Playing with kids is tiring! We went to Concord for a chili dinner at the high school that my sister's class was hosting to raise money for their prom. Then, we watched a quarter of the football game - it was the 1st game I have been to in ages. To make it fair, we also had to stop at Western High School to watch some of their game, as well. (That's where Brook graduated from.) I believe both teams lost pretty badly - how sad.

Saturday morning, it was misting and foggy, which worried me a little, since we had our engagement pictures that day. I thought the fog would burn off, but when we left for East Lansing, it hadn't yet. By the time we arrived at the Botanical Gardens on MSU's campus, it was a beautiful, sunny morning! YAY! We had a great meeting with our photographer and can't wait to see the pictures he took. (I will post the link to the on-line gallery when he sends it to me.)

Saturday was also the anniversary of our first date. After the infamous ND/MSU game, Brook called and asked if I wanted to meet him for dinner at Champps Eastwood Towne Center. As you can imagine, I said, "Yes." I was on time for that date, but Brook was trying to "play it cool," as he now says, and was late. (He went to the shoe store to buy boots instead of being on time.) Anyway, we went there for lunch after our pictures and (by coincidence) even sat at the same table. I know, we are dorks! :)

Later in the afternoon, Brook booked Bella Notte's for our rehearsal dinner and I took another nap. Come on, I had a drink at lunch and it made me sleepy. Saturday night, Stacie and Jason Tello went to the Tiger's game with us. We never get to hang out with just the 2 of them and had a great time! We got there early (free parking - yay!) and visited Cheli's for a few drinks. This also gave Brook an opportunity to watch the end of the Michigan game. Thanks to their miraculous comeback, he was a happy camper. We all had a great time at the game and are thankful for having such great friends.

Sunday, after church, we met some friends for lunch and then went hiking along the Waterloo Trail. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, but we were whipped by the end of the day. What a weekend!

One Year and Counting!

Brook and I celebrated our "1 year anniversary" September 22nd. It is hard to believe that we met only a year ago at the MSU / Notre Dame football game in South Bend. What a great memory that day will always be for us. (Except the Notre Dame lost, of course!) So much has happened in the last year and now we are preparing to be married in less than 7 months.

Brook sent me a dozen long-stemmed roses - it was a huge surprise and they were absolutely beautiful!

Introducing Diggity

My college roommate and good friend, Lisa, just bought a new puppy. He is only 8 weeks old and the cutest thing EVER! He is a a miniature dachsund and Lisa named him Diggity, short for Hot Doggity Dog. Leave to Lisa to come up with a creative name like that! :)Brady and I went to visit Lisa and meet Diggity last night. We also had yummy Thai food (my first) and watched "The Other Boleyn Girl." Poor Diggity misses his mom and cries a lot, especially when he is in his crate. This does not make for a peaceful night's sleep for Lisa! He also whined a lot when we went for a short, slow walk. Does anyone know why he would do this? Diggity liked his new friend, but it took Brady a while to warm up to Diggity.