Dinner in the Garden

Friday night I hosted my first ever dinner party for both Nate and my family.

It was a garden themed party and I dubbed it:

Presh right?!

Every time I volunteer to host a shindig Nate always second guesses his decision to marry me... someone who likes to entertain. That's why whenever something new comes up I have to strategically bring it up when he's in a good mood. 

This time he was like, "that's fine, but it's your party...you get to do all the work."

...Poor guy got suckered into putting patio lights on the patio ceiling, setting up my tables, cleaning up the backyard and cooking the chicken. 

He might just be a good sport after all. ...

I saw the idea for a garden party in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine and thought to myself that I could TOTALLY do that!

So off to Pinterest (and Home Depot) I went!

I was gonna have everyone come dressed up as their favorite flower, but was afraid that's where Nate (or every other male in attendance, for that matter) might draw the line...So I went with nay on the human flower idea.  

The table

My centerpieces

Mason jars to drink out of and floating tea lights in water for decoration

The drink/food table

I couldn't wait for the sun to go down so I could turn on our new patio lights! I've wanted to put lights on the ceiling like that for a long time, so this garden party was the perfect excuse to get Nate to help me!

They created the perfect ambience for our dinner in the garden

 For dinner we had chicken (courtesy of yours truly, the husband), pasta salad (yes, I actually contributed to making the food), a green salad (a la my mother-in-law, Sherri), and a strawberry jello salad (from the Kitchen of none other than my mom Sally).

And everything was DEEEEE-LISH!

I was so pumped to bring out dessert because I found the cutest idea online for a garden themed dessert!

Taa-dahhh!

 It's pound cake on the bottom, then filled in with ice cream (and a couple gummy worms for a real "garden" effect), topped with crunched up Oreos for the "potting soil", complete with a flower!

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "ohmuhgosh seriously, SO cute right?!" I'd give it a 12.

Cause seriously... SO cute right?!

I'm thinking next year I'll have everyone come smelling like their favorite flower, and then we'll blind fold people and go around and sniff each other and see if we can't guess what flower we are. ...any takers??

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes I feel like my jeans are getting too tight

Always: convince myself it's the jeans that are shrinking, certainly not the body that is growing. ...old jeans shrink right?! After all those washes and stuff?!

Sometimes I think it's weird that I'm willing to stay up late to blog but not to finish homework

Always: ...on second thought, that doesn't seem so weird after all

Sometimes I get excited and invite my family over for dinner parties

Always: run out of time to prepare and end up stressing about it

Sometimes I wanna put on Pandora while I blog

Always: end up turning it off cause it messes up my blogging ju-ju

Sometimes I think I should hang a sign on my door:

"Shhhhhhh. Blogger in session"

Ya??

Sometimes I think I'm lame when I only have twenty-something blog followers compared to other people's hundreds

Always: tell myself to be grateful for my twenty-something awesome peeps (which I totally am, by the way), quit crying like a teenager who's bummed they only have twenty-something friends on their myspace page...and tell myself that hundreds of people read my blog anyway.

...everyone needs a little self pep-talk right?!

Sometimes I can't find my shoes

Always: check under my desk where I tend to always kick them off in order to fold my legs up on my desk chair

One time I found 3 pairs of slippers, 2 pairs of flats, and some flip-flops down there...impressive right?!  

High Five Friday

Linking up with Lauren today for my top 5 things from this week!

1.) In my search for the perfect summer song, that has now commenced since the weather has been over 100 degrees twice this week, I stumbled upon this gem in itunes the other night and I'm thinking it just might fit the bill

It's no Jake Owen, but I'm totally diggin' it

Here's my favorite summer song from last year:

I know, hard to beat right?!

2.) I was checking out one of the newer blogs I started following recently and was so surprised to find this awesome tid bit in one of her posts:

Seriously, MADE. MY. DAY. 

Go check out Mosby's blog...and she just turned the big 21 so wish her a happy birthday!! =)

3.) My new Water Hyacinths for my water garden!

(Thanks mom!)

This is what they look like:

Can you spot them on the far left and right sides?!

...supposedly they're considered an "invasive" species...so I'm hoping they'll "invade" my water garden and get all big and pretty and pretty and stuff =)

4.) Got a call to set up an interview for a potential full time internship...cross your fingers for me!!!

5.) Tax refund has been deposited folks!! 

Are we gonna use it and go on an awesome vacation?!

No.

Are we gonna buy some new awesome comfy furniture?!

No.

Is Rissa gonna take all the money and go on a shopping spree?!

I wish.

Are we gonna pay off a buncha debt and credit cards?!

TOTALLY.

I know, it's a terrible way to use an extra load of cash, and a terrible reminder that I'm a grown up now. But hey, you gotta do whatchya gotta do right?!

Alls I'm Sayin'...

The Boy Who Lived

Over the weekend my dear friend Stephanie and I had a Harry Potter party.

Why, You ask?

Cause we're cool.

But really though, do you really need to have a reason to have a Harry Potter party?

The answer is no, but we just so happen to have one anyway!

You see, the Pottermore website is now LIVE folks! If you haven't heard of it, it's an interactive website with additional content from JK Rowling about the plot, characters, her inspiration for the stories, and so much more! And you can do all kinds of reading and game playing and...reading and stuff! It's way cooler than how I'm making it sound right now, I promise. 

As I was trying to tell Nate this he's all, "I can't be married to a nerd. You need to get that under control." and asked me if it was like World of Warcraft or something.

...I told him to bite his tongue and come back to me when he had a better attitude.
Muggles, I tell ya...

Anyway, so with Pottermore being live Stephanie and I thought it was the perfect time for a Harry Potter party! We spent the day learning the website, watching the movies, chatting, and eating our home-made Harry Potter snacks. Of which included:

And just in case you were wondering,

Diagon Alley is that way

Oh, and,

Hogsmede is that-a-way

One of the most exciting parts of the website is that you can personally be sorted into a House! Stephanie and I have been talking for months that if we were to be sorted into Slytherin...we just might die. And since I'm here typing this post...ergo de facto, we managed to avoid Slytherin House.

Phew!

Drum roll please...

Now, I won't even lie, Gryffindor was obviously the ideal choice, but as I mentioned, anything but Slytherin is A-OK with me! And bonus, Stephanie is a Ravenclaw too! So that totally makes us housemates. Which totally means we could have sleep-overs and stuff. ...if this wasn't a virtual world, that is.

Harry Potter party #2 is already in the works for when book 2 goes live on the website!

It was a good day, I must say!

  

Sometimes and Always

Sometimes I convince myself to blog on the patio in order to take advantage of the weather before it's too hot

Always ...it's already 102 degrees in April!

Sometimes I freak out when bees get too close to me and feel kinda silly when I do the please-don't-sting-me-you bee dance

Always ...don't even care! Bees are scary!

Sometimes I wonder why my water garden is dying

Always...call mom!

Sometimes I wonder why it smells like urine on my patio

Always...call Gunther!...who's the one who every time I tell him to go outside and go potty before I put him in his kennel, lifts his leg on my fern

Sometimes right when the sun is going down, the light falls ever-so-perfectly on my garage door censor and it won't let me close the garage door

Always...wait til the sun moves and hope the neighbors don't judge me for our messy garage

Sometimes I think I wanna be a good fan and watch the Suns vs. Jazz tonight
Always...pray and cross my fingers cause I think I'm just too nervous!!

GO SUNS!!!

   

Sometimes and Always

Linking up with Megan again for another round of Sometimes and Always!

Sometimes: I try and chew gum when I get bored.

Always: End up biting my nails instead

Sometimes: I browse USWeekly.com

Always: Wish I didn't after reading 2 stories because celebrities are so ridiculous. 

Sometimes: I feel like all I wear are my scrubs

Always: Oh wait, I always do cause I'm always at work

Yuck.

Sometimes: I feel like the parking meters downtown are kind of expensive.

2 quarters doesn't get me much more than 10 minutes

Always: Remember that the city changed it back to free after 5pm and on weekends, so I suppose it could be worse

Sometimes: I get really nervous when I have to give a presentation in class

Always: I get warm when I get nervous which then turns into a heat rash. And then I'm not only nervous to give my presentation, I'm nervous about getting a heat rash.

Sometimes: I wanna yell at Nathan for not turning off the light when he leaves a room

Always: I don't want to be that wife that nags nags nags. So I bite my tongue and turn it off myself

Sometimes: I tell Gunny he can't come up on the bed and snuggle cause he gets my bed all harry and dirty

Always: let him up anyway cause he's so cute and such a good snuggler

(shhhh don't tell Nathan!)