Royal Wedding

To be perfectly honest, I never thought I'd get in to this Royal Wedding thing! I have been mildly interested throughout their engagement, but mostly just because I'm a sucker for anything wedding-related, especially when the wedding is bound to be a real-life fairy tale. I didn't think I'd actually watch the wedding... maybe just see the hilights on E! News.

BUT then, my Grandma decided to have a "Royal Wedding Viewing Party"! She DVR'd the wedding coverage {because we weren't quite crazy enough to wake up before 4am to watch}, and we watched it together this afternoon. I was kind of up in the air about going at first because I didn't think I really cared about watching the entire ceremony, but decided to go because I thought it would be fun to spend the afternoon with the girls of the family {My grandma, mom, sister and aunt}.

We had such a fun time. I actually ended up loving watching the wedding. I love that it seemed so much like a real life fairy tale... and I know that fairy tales are often times not at all what they seem to be, but it is kind of fun to imagine William and Kate living happily ever after. And OH my word, that dress. I don't think anyone could have even imagined anything more perfect. I thought she looked exactly like a princess should look.

Even though I loved the dresses (and hats) and the fairy-tale-ness of the wedding, I think my favorite thing about watching was just knowing that I (and the other 2 billion people who watched the wedding on TV) witnessed something that is going to be a big part of history. I love Royal history, and I think all of the traditions that the British royals have kept alive for hundreds of years are so fascinating.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some pictures of the cute party that my Grandma put together this afternoon. She got so in to it which made it even more fun.

Lemon cookies and cupcakes...

Tea and Crumpets!

She went all out and made chicken salad on croissants and cucumber toasts with fruit for lunch

She even put pearls around her candles!

And she broke out the Red Hat Society hats for us to wear! We actually only wore them for this picture though, haha.

Thank you for having us over Grandma! I had so much fun!

a Project Life Tuesday post... very late!

Yikes... I began this post before we left for our Honeymoon over a week ago and forgot to finish it and post it! I don't even remember the dates for these photos at this point, but here are a bunch of my Project Life pics that I haven't posted yet! Totally out of order, but all I care about is that they're up!

I made this four layer cake for Kurt's birthday, which was April 18th. It was vanilla and red velvet. It was an absolute lop-sided disaster! The ugliest cake ever, but it tasted REALLY good.

The picture on the left is from Kurt's birthday, he's holding up all of the books he got for his birthday, and on the right is a picture of me at the Omaha Storm Chasers opening day,which was also the opening day of our brand new baseball park. My favorite thing about going to games is ballpark hot dogs... and one of the new concession stand is called "Hot Dog Nation", so Kurt made me pose in front of it! Haha. These are two 3x4 images that I printed on a 4x6, and cut them apart to fit in the places in the album where the journaling cards ordinarily go.

Kurt took the dogs to play at the lake and they got VERY muddy. While he was there, he ran into a guy who told him about the dog wash... which is essentially like a self-serve car wash but for dogs!. He said he loves it because it uses warm water. We thought we'd try it out because our dogs think they're in trouble every time we have to use the hose in the back yard! They absolutely hated it but it was pretty funny. This one is Molly, and Buddy is below.

Two more pictures of Kurt at the Storm Chasers game. It was FRREEEZING cold by the end of it, apparently Nebraska thinks that it's still winter. I had to go to my car to dig some gloves out of the trunk, and we bought a stadium blanket. I really hope real spring arrives soon!



pants are too big!

This past week or so has been very strange for me fitness-wise. Having that tooth extracted messed me up. From Tuesday through Friday afternoon, I ate nothing but mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese pretty much. I didn't really feel guilty because I didn't really have a choice, but the crazy increase in carbs as well as the complete lack of exercise was making me feel pretty icky. I went to Zumba on Monday night and could barely keep up with the class. I actually left halfway through. That was embarassing... but I should NOT have tried to go. I went even though I knew I shouldn't have with the pain killers I was on... they made me RIDICULOUSLY hot within the first 5 minutes.

Anyway, despite of all that, I'm down a few pounds! I even had a little confidence booster moment this morning! Back in march, I went shopping at Kohl's and got some new dress pants for my job interview. I convinced myself that they looked good in the dressing room, but when I put them on the next morning at home, I just knew they were too tight. So I put on a pair that I already owned, and planned on returning the new ones. Except I never did... so this morning, I said to myself, "Self, you've already waited so long to return those pants, maybe they'll fit now... just wear 'em! You are going to need more dress clothes for your new job anyway!" So I put them on... and they were too big! Like, ridiculous big. I felt like I was wearing clown pants or something. I was kind of mad because now I still have to return them (if they'll let me), but also very excited that I've lost more inches than I thought! Maybe I should start measuring myself instead of weighing.

hmm...

Project Life Tuesday!

There was no PLTuesday post to link up to last week @The Mom Creative, so I took the week off :) here are my photos from this week, plus some extra because I'm playing catch-up.

March 31

Kurt and I went to our room to go to bed, and found that Molly had already made herself at home right in the middle!

April 1
Pretty self explanatory... I made this sweet potato for lunch, and it was shaped like heart so I took a picture. Ha!

April 2
My sister-in-law Jordynn had her end-of-the-year show choir performance at her high school. She is the one toward the middle of the photo with the purple pinafore and purple bow.

April 3:
Kurt and I went to the "Pedastrian Bridge" that crosses the Missouri River and connects NE to IA. This is Kurt posing with half of his body on Nebraska, and half of it on Iowa.

April 4:

I finally joined the smart phone club... and got both Kurt and I addicted to playing Words With Friends.

April 5:
I spent almost 4 hours at the dentist having a tooth extracted and getting my temporary bridge put in. The pain was UNREAL, but when I got home, Kurt went to the store to get me things that I could actually eat for dinner... mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream! {Please excuse the crappy cell phone pic, and how crappy I look in it! haha!}

April 6:

Planning our trip to Washington DC!

April 7:
My sewing machine arrived!!!! I was so excited. It is my graduation present from my parents :)

April 8:

Practicing with my new sewing machine!

April 9:
We spent Saturday Evening and Sunday morning in Columbus, NE, visiting our friends Abi and Jeremy. Abi's sister Alysha who is also an amazing friend to me, just had a baby boy last week - Carter! He was so tiny and precious. We didn't get to spend much time at their house, but I'm looking forward to being able to go back soon and spend more time with him! {And Alysha too :)}

We helped babysit Abi and Jeremy's niece and nephew while we were there. Raegan and Landyn absolutely LOVED Kurt and were so happy while he was reading this story to them. Look at their faces. So sweet. This kind of thing definitely makes me restless to have more kids. What a precious picture.

I took so many pictures during the short time we were there, I made a collage of some of my favorites. Abigail was my roomate in college a few years ago, and the little doggie in the bottom right hand corner was our dog while we lived together. I somehow hadn't seen her since and I missed her so much!

April 10:
On our way out of town, Kurt and I visited the Columbus Veterans Memorial. This is Kurt pretending to shoot from a Higgins Boat.



Getting To Know You Sunday

I'm linking up again today on Mannland5's "Getting To Know You Sunday"!
1. do you weigh yourself?
I blogged about this recently... I really have a love/hate relationship with my scale. I love to see progress... but the reality is, that the scale just doesn't change every single day. I have tried to limit myself to weighing once a week... but sometimes it ends up being 3 or 4 times a week. To be honest, when I have a "bad eating" day, where I cheated on our diet, I do weigh myself to see how much my weight was affected. Sometimes it depresses me, and sometimes it gives me more motivation to pick it back up the next day!

2. what's the nastiest thing you've ever eaten?
RICE CHEESE!!!! Without a doubt. Currently, Kurt and I are eating a 99% meat and dairy-free diet. So, while at Trader Joe's the other day {The most amazing grocery store ever known to man, and I can't believe we went so long without one here in Omaha!}, I found some dairy-free cheese that was made from rice. Decided to try it... BIG MISTAKE. It was "cheddar flavored". More like crap flavored. I had tasted it straight from the wrapper (they're wrapped up individually like American cheese singles), so I thought maybe it would be better on a sandwhich or something... I was wrong. very, very wrong!

3. snail mail or email?
Both! I love waking up to an inbox full of personal emails {meaning, emails from real people, not stores and Groupon etc.}... but there's nothing better than getting an actual, handwritten letter in the mail. That's just one of the many reasons why I love Christmas time!

4. do you have any irrational fears...what are they?
Oh, I don't know if any of my fears are completely irrational, but I do worry about my next pregnancy... whether or not something will happen to that baby. Because my mom and I are both the oldest in our families, and both lost our first child, a thought that has gone through my mind is, "is there some kind of family curse? where the oldest daughter loses her first daughter? is this going to happen to my next child?" Actually... I'm not the oldest, technically, since my parents lost Katie just before me, but I'm the oldest living child.

I know none of these things are true, and none of them are going to happen... but it's an unavoidable thought that has popped into my head on occasion.

5. do you play an instrument?
Nope! I took violin lessons at school in 4th grade because all of the "cool kids" were doing it, but I wasn't very good at it. I stopped mid-way throughout the year, I think.

6. would you rather be bitten by a snake or attacked by a bear?
Um... a snake! A snake bites you... a bear can rip apart your whole body! Why would anyone pick that!?

7. do you ever go braless in public?
Hahaha!! Anyone who knows me in real life is probably laughing right now. I am ... shall we say... extremely well endowed on top. I have been getting comments on how large my chest is since the early days of high school. Pregnancy and gaining weight has basically tripled their original size... so they're big. And not wearing a bra is simply not an option. I don't even like the feeling of going braless at home, unless it's time for bed! I wear a sports bra around the house if I don't have a regular one on:)

8. today i am thankful for........................?
So many things. For my husband who knew my mouth hurt and brought me a mocha protein shake home from the gym... for my wonderful friends and family, my doggies, and most of all today, all of the AMAZING people who made additional donations to Team Livie Bean for March of Dimes along with their t-shirt orders. We are so, so blessed.

March of Dimes FINAL PUSH!

The March for Babies is only a few short weeks away, and our team has been working hard at fundraising. A friend recently gave me this idea, and I thought I'd post it here in case any of my lovely readers are interested. However, I do know that many of my followers are BLMs as well, and have their own March of Dimes teams.

You can still support Team Livie Bean, even if you live too far away to walk! For $20, you will recieve one of our beautiful shirts, and a donation will be made to the March of Dimes.

Orders have to be in by Friday, April 15, so please let me know if you are interested!

ETA: If you would like a shirt, you may submit your payment to me through paypal! Just put "Betsy.hills@yahoo.com into the payment box, and add a note with the size(s) that you need.

Thanks!

Have a wonderful Friday!!

BEST mail day ever!

Yesterday afternoon, I spent over 3 hours in the dentist's chair. I had a tooth extracted and a temporary bridge put in. I have never had a cavity before or had any work done to my teeth other than cleanings, so I was absolutely terrified to go to my appointment. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting... until afterwards. My dad actually picked me up and brought me home, and I was bragging about how great I felt. Within about 20 minutes after I got home, I was in a world of pain. The pain in my mouth was so intense that I was dizzy, nautious and sick to my stomach. Because of that, I didn't want to eat... but I needed something in my stomach so I could take a pain pill! Kurt suggested that I drink some Milk. Because of the dizzyness, I tripped on the deck and spilled my milk all over my shirt and Molly. Horrible! My loving husband went to the grocery store and got me mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and icecream. Pretty much the only three things I can eat right now, and three things that are absolutely NOT on my diet! :)  

{Please excuse how trashy I look! haha}

Because I've been eating so well for the past couple of weeks, I felt like total crap this morning! I took the day off and spent 99% of it on the couch! It was nice to be able to lay around all day without feeling like I should be up doing a bunch of things... but I still felt like total crap.
One thing that's always sure to cheer me up, is getting mail. I love getting mail... my favorite part about Christmas time is getting actual, real, mail... as opposed to the credit card offers and ads that fill up the mailbox on a daily basis.

I got THREE things in the mail today that I've been waiting for for what seems like forever!

My Zumba DVDs... which we pre-ordered a couple of months ago! Until now, there have been Zumba games for Wii and Xbox Kinect, but we just have a regular Xbox 360, so I couldn't get one! I had desperately been wanting to do Zumba at home during the days I can't make it to class, so I was thrilled to see that they were finally going to be releasing some. When we ordered, the website said they wouldn't be sent out until at least April 15th... so I freaked out when I saw them in our mailbox today! I really hope I feel better tomorrow afternoon so I can try them out. Also, they came with these one pound weights that sound like maracas when you shake them... Annoying, yes... but also super fun to annoy your husband with :)

I ordered two sewing books to go along with my graduation present from my parents (sewing machine). One of them is the book that Gussy recommends to new sewers. I paged through it this afternoon and it looks amazing. I checked the tracking on my sewing machine on Amazon this afternoon, and it appears as if it is going to arrive TOMORROW. I am beyond pumped about that!

AND, last but absolutely not least, finally, finally, finally, my camera strap from Shey B!!! I ordered this a quite a while ago, but her turn around time is about one month. I almost forgot about it. Love it. I was really hoping it would come in before we leave for our honeymoon to DC in a couple of weeks. So glad it did!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

NEW March for Babies shirt design!!

I know that this is supposed to be Project Life Tuesday, but I don't care - I'm doing that tomorrow.

Today, I want to share this with you guys - Our March for Babies t-shirt design!

The AMAZING, amazing, amazing, amazing, Danielle of Danielle Moss Graphic Design and Photography{Formerly The Design Girl}, who also designed my blog, did the design for the shirts.

I am so excited, it's unreal. I designed them myself last year, and I liked them... but knew I wanted something a little bit more polished looking this time around. And she nailed it. I pretty much just gave her the words and she went to town. She is now my go-to person for ANYTHING design related. I don't know what else I'll need to have done in the future, but she seriously can do it all, and I love everything she comes up with.

The top part of the image will be on the back of the shirts, and the bottom is going to be on the front of the shirts, off to the side. I can't WAIT to get these back from the printer.

If I look at this for too long, I start crying - seriously. How sweet is that little bow on the "O"!? Pink bows remind us of Olivia, and I didn't even ask Danielle to add it. She just remembered that I told her that when she was working on this blog, and did it on her own. She rocks.

We have 26 people who will be wearing these shirts this year. It means so much to me to have something tangible that reminds me, and everyone else, of Olivia. I know that whenever our friends/family pull last year's  shirt out of their drawers, they think of her instantly. That makes me so happy.

Thanks, Danielle :)

Turquoise LOVE

Knowing that I now have a secured job lined up {for a while there, they had only "unofficially" offered the position to me so I was really hesitant about saying anything and tried not to think about it}, I am finally letting myself plan for our new home... whatever that might be. We are planning on renting, and my only requirement (Other than the obvious - MUST allow doggies!) is that I at least like the kitchen. I know that because it's a rental, it won't be my dream kitchen or anything like that... but I love to cook and spend a LOT of time in the kitchen, and since we more than likely won't be able to make any updates ourselves, I need to at least be able to walk in the room and not want to come right back out again.

Not knowing where we what kind of decor we were going to have created some problems while registering for our wedding gifts! In our apartment, I decorated the kitchen in shades of green... but didn't really like it all that much and knew I wanted to change it up. We decided to register for things that are as neutral in color as possible just to leave our options open. We also really only registered for functional things like utensils and small appliances, and almost no decor items... except the bedspread..... which I already posted about here.

But that's okay, because it's fun to not be pigeon holed into picking out decor items that are carried at the place where you registered! In our case, that was Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, which I love, but I also love having the freedom to pick things out from wherever I want!

I have been looking at kitchen decor for weeks now, ever since I had the job interview. I've decided that TURQUOISE is going to be one of the main colors in our new kitchen. I'm SO excited about this.

I am obsessed with this....

via

And this...

via

These last two are pictures of the same kitchen. I almost passed out when I saw this sink. Do you have any idea how obsessed I am with farmhouse sinks? Like, REALLY obsessed. I WILL have one some day.

And one more...

via

But because we probably won't be able to paint or install fancy new cabinets and appliances... nor will I probably ever have the balls to paint my cabinets turquoise, I am going to have to settle for some pretty turquoise accessories. Like this one...

via

I am EXTREMELY excited that I have already begun my collection!! I recently ordered these two things from Funky Vintage Lovely, and they came in the mail this past week.

Sweet light turquoise desert stand

Chalkboard frame/recipe card holder. Probably my new favorite thing in the entire world!

This necklace was also an impulse buy at the last minute, but I love it. I'm wearing it today for the first time and have already gotten several compliments on it from people at the office.

Go check out Funky Vintage Lovely by April Kennedy, AND April's blog! You will be instantly addicted (I was), plus she is SUPER sweet to work with. {And no, she didn't ask me to post this... I'm just really excited about my new stuff :) }

Katie's Birthday

Today would have been my big sister Katie's 25th birthday. For those of you who don't already know, she was stillborn in 1986, about 10 months before me. I was their "Rainbow Baby". My mom went to the doctor for a regular check up at about 37 weeks or so and there was no heartbeat. We have one picture of her that is just a poloroid, and it has started to discolor a little bit. I scanned it for my mom recently and re-printed it so that it wouldn't age anymore, but it makes me sad that it's the only one they have. I was thinking about posting it here, but I don't want to do that without my mom's "ok".

My parents are going to her cemetary in Iowa today to take her some flowers and dragonfly garden picks to put in the ground. For years her stone has been sinking into the ground and looking kinda like crap, and the cemetary finally fixed it! I'm sure that seeing it look nice again will ease my mom's mind a little bit. That might seem like no big deal to a lot of people, but when the only thing you can do for your child is keep their grave site looking nice, it is a big deal.

It sounds strange, but knowing that my parents still think about Katie all the time after 25 years and after having two more girls is comforting to me. It really shows that having more kids does not in any way, shape, or form replace the one(s) that have been lost.

I'm thinking about my Mom and Dad today, and of course about Katie who I'm sure would have been the best big sister ever.