Good Morning Blog

It's Monday morning, and I am tired. All these weeks are starting to run together. Yesterday was my first day off in 7 days, and today I am going back to work. I am starting to drool over Parrot Key. I only have 2 more weeks of school and then exams, so after that it will be all wedding and honeymoon from there. It's creeping closer and closer. Hopefully I will have plenty of rest by then, maybe, maybe not?

Saturday, my lovely sister Jill is throwing me a Bridal Shower! Yay! I have tried so hard to keep my registries in order because they keep discontinuing my stuff! I guess I either pick the good stuff or the stuff no one else likes? hmm? Well, I am so excited just to see everyone! I finished my side of our invitations last night, now the number is up to 78! I know they all won't come but the numbers sure add up fast. Now we just have to do the names in Chad's address book. You think he has an address book? No! I guess after all of this WE will have an address book, haha! I guess I will call the secretary at his work today and see if she can give me some addresses; I guess I am on my own with this one. I am not going to be upset with Chad's mom, she has been through soo much the past couple of weeks. Finally we are going to have a girls day all day Wednesday. Hopefully by next Monday I will have all the invitations in the mail. Keep your eyes peeled, I think I have most of you in my address book! : ) I will leave you with a picture of the beach we are going to in Key West, Bahia Honda Beach! I am soo excited!!!!

Parrot Key

Have you ever heard of Parrot Key? It's in the Florida Keys and it is a luxury tropical paradise. This is where Chad and I are going on our honeymoon! We are so excited! It is really reasonable too! We went over to some friends house and in between hearing about the silly bachelor party plans Randy mentioned Parrot Key. We didn't know where in the Keys we wanted to go or where would stay but now we do. Apparently Jimmy Buffet's headquarters are here too. All of this wedding stress and school stress, and work stress, and we are finally going to be able to relax! We will be leaving the Sunday after our wedding and coming back the following Sunday, if we come back!

Indianapolis in August

Indianapolis, our first adventure excluding our honeymoon as Mr. and Mrs. Brown-cracker(as Lori calls us, should be Graham-cracker). At the end of August for my birthday we will be heading to Indianapolis for the Moto Grand Prix (MotoGP) race! Yay!!! Valentino Rossi (Chad's favorite) has won 8 championships thus far. He is currently contracted to race with Yamaha for 2 more years but we want to make sure we get to go see him before he retires. Off to Indianapolis we go!
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Valentino has been one of Chad's favorite racers for a long time. Every year he keeps up with what he's up to and always tries to see the races on TV. Since he races MotoGP they race all over the world, not like Nascar that just races in the US. MotoGP only comes to the US twice the whole season, to Laguna Seca in California, and Indianapolis (this will be the third year they have raced in Indy). Valentino Rossi is from a little city in Italy called Urbino (which we plan to visit someday!). Valentino just turned 31 in February, 10 days before Chad turned 26. Guess what else, Valentino has English bulldogs!!! His longtime friend Guido passed away recently but he has two new pups now. The picture to the right is a photo of Valentino and Guido. Maybe we will name our next bulldog Guido? hmm? Anyways, hopefully Valentino will have a win when we go. Last year a hurricane actually hit Indianapolis when they were racing so I hope we will also have better weather. In MotoGP they still race in the rain, so either way we will get our moneys worth.

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The race is Sunday August 29th. We are planning on driving on a Friday, sightseeing on Saturday, race day all day Sunday and then driving home on Monday. Chad bought our tickets about 3 weeks ago to make sure we have seats. We were able to get box seats, right before the first turn just as they are decelerating from a straightaway. We will also be covered if it rains, but it's not going to rain!! I am so excited, this will be a first for both of us. My sister is joining us too because we have turned her on to motorcycle racing. Since she will have graduated she will be able to travel with us. Maybe she will drive her new car, but hopefully I will have my new car by then, I guess we will see when we get closer to time. We do officially have tickets so there is no backing out now. I am sure I will post all kinds of pictures afterwards too! Chad's dad bets it will be well over 300. I don't miss a beat!

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Chad and I talk about it everyday, almost more than our honeymoon because we are so excited. Just thought I would share some of the excitement with you. : )

Yes it's Ladies Night...

On Thursday night I think I went on my first real "Ladies Night." Wow, I know. I am going to be 25 soon, and I just had my first ladies night. Lori and I made really good friends with a new girl at work named Emily, and just as soon as we start becoming really good friends with her, she decides to move away to Yellowstone National Park (crazy I know). Anyways, she was like the perfect person to talk about art with because she too is an artist like me. All of my friends from art school moved far and away and then Mel moved away with Brandon. So it has been nice having someone to doodle with and discuss art with. Lori, Emily and I decided to have one final outing before she leaves.

Emily found out that Strike City downtown at the Epicenter had half price martinis on ladies night on Thursdays. They also have bowling too, plus your shoes are free on Thursday if you are a lady. Once Lori and I got off from work at 9pm we set out for the light rail. This was my first experience with the light rail and I have to say it is really nifty! It was no time and we were at the Epicenter and we didn't even have to walk far, it was right there as we got off from the train.

I haven't bowled in a long time. We went a few Sunday's with Chad's parents a a few years ago, but it had been a while. The first few throws, I made strikes, and then there were more strikes, and a couple of gutter balls, and a few spares, and I won! Yay! I wasn't even really trying, maybe it was the alcohol? I don't know but we had so much fun, I hate that this was our last outing at least for 6 months until Emily comes home. But it was so much fun. I forgot to tell you, for some reason after each one of our turns it would tell each one of us Happy Birthday. it never failed, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday. This group of a few guys and a girl set up in the lane beside of us just before we finished and they noticed it was our birthday apparently? We told them that no it wasn't our birthday. Just as we were changing our shoes our waitress brought out 10 shots I think, a "Red-headed slut" for us all! It was so funny, and something we won't soon forget. I think it made all of our nights. A few great martinis and a "Red-headed slut!"

What a fun first Ladies Night! I hope we can go back to Strike City for my bachelorette party. I keep dropping my sista hints. We'll see! I hope you all have a lovely weekend! Chad and I are finally going to buy his wedding band today! Yay! Date Night! I am so excited! I was marking off the days for the wedding at work on the schedule and the days for our honeymoon and it hit me then, "this is it!" I am probably going to be crazy nervous that day, just about 2 months away, ahhh!!!

A Big Seat for a Big Boy

Charlie is going on 7 months now. It's hard to believe he was only 7 weeks old when we brought him home. He was too small for a cat carrier. Now he can sit in the front seat like a big boy. We recently bought him a seat belt to wear in the car (just in case!). When Chad's uncle was in town they had a lengthy conversation about our dog and their dog, and he mentioned having a seat belt for their dog. That same weekend Chad went out and bought one. He doesn't mind a bit. He loves going on car rides. Pretty much every time we take him outside he goes right to the passenger side door. We go for a walk everyday, and he knows that 2 or 3 days out of the week he gets to go to the park, so that means we get to go for a ride. Sometimes we go and have lunch with daddy, maybe we might do that today, hmmm?