Harlem Globe Trotters!

One of my favorite things to do with Mr. Hess is go to any kind of sporting event, because we don't get to attend many sports events without working them!  About once a year, we get invited to go see the World Famous Harlem Globe Trotters! 

I remember when I was a little girl, my dad took me to a Globe Trotters event once, and I watched their cartoon on TV and thought that was cool. You can imagine my excitement to see them again in PERSON!  Last year, we took a group of girls on my team to see them play at the UCF arena, but this year the game was at Disney's Wide World of Sports.  We had a pretty good sized group with us and got to sit in the third row from the court - VIP, yes please! :) 



Excited to see the show!

What a great group of basketball tricksters and entertainers.  These guys do dunks and tricks I would never imagine seeing in any kind of NBA game.  Their only opponent is the Washington Generals, but to this day they have won every game against them but ONE! That's pretty amazing.  Even their intros before the game starts are unbelievable - I mean really...if I could do just one of these tricks I would be the best trickster on the dunk team! These guys are great - Check them out:

Towards the end of the game, we got to meet the hilarious and always entertaining Globie - the Harlem Globetrotters mascot.  Only, this time - it was Air Globie, or Big G.  Personally, air characters are my absolute favorite thing to watch in the mascot world because EVERYTHING they do is funny.  I don't know why - it just IS! I always enjoy watching more than just Basketball when we get to go to games...I end up staring at the mascot or dancers for at least half of it.  I bet you can see why:

All in all, I had a great night with some friends, but most of all a night out with Mr. Hess. He definitely has some social butterfly tendencies, which can be fun.  I am the one however, who is usually at home writing blogs about what we do while he goes and gives me more to write about.  He has definitely been a world traveler with an impressive resume, but within the last year I found out he has actually toured and performed with the Harlem Globe Trotters! Not as a player, but part of the game...how cool is that? Now you can see why I love the entertainment part of it - it's what we do!

We definitely happen to fall upon opportunities that some people would never get to experience, and I am thankful for that.  Hopefully our "nightlife" turns more into a "planninglife" because I am beginning to become overwhelmed with what's left to do...which is exactly what I didn't want to happen!  So it's time to really sit down and get some things done.  You with me, Mr. Hess?!?!?

Until next time blog readers!

-Presh

It's Beginning to Look a LOT like Christmas!

It's beginning to also be a tradition in our house to start decorating for Christmas if there's any kind of second wind after Thanksgiving Dinner is over! Apparently, Mr. Hess and I both got the itch to do this, because not only did we decorate our Christmas tree, but we hung up and took out all of our Holiday decorations that night!

My Aunt gave us these "H" Holiday Napkins and "H" crystal ornament!

May seem a bit silly, but we had fun - AND it's done! WHY THE HECK NOT?! I guess all of that stuffing finally got past my belly and into my body for energy because we stayed up until 2AM to get it all finished! :) There's just something about decorating for Christmas that I absolutely love, and I couldn't wait to get it started.

So we got home, put on some Christmas music and went to town!

Our Christmas Stockings! <3 <3

The miniture tree...Tiny Tina!

And here is our brand new tree!! Her name is Tina and she is beautiful and fun! :)

Tina the Tree complete with Aspen the kitty - the best present EVER!

Even though there are still 2 days left in November, I think it is perfectly okay to get ready for Christmas after Thanksgiving is over.  Now, when you walk into Michaels or a craft store in the middle of July and start seeing Halloween decorations up, that's a little excessive...but I will always argue that when we decorate is perfectly normal! 

GOSH! I can't believe the Holidays are already here!!!! This year has absolutely FLOWN by! I know the next few months will fly by too and before you know it we will be in the final months of planning our wedding.  Hopefully this will be the last blog off the topic of weddings for a while because it's really time to start getting to work!



Poor Cali girl was tukered out after decorating all night, and then folding laundry too!



236 Days and counting....



Happy Holidays!

Until next time,

Presh



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As each holiday season approaches, I get more and more excited about the Thanksgiving Holiday!  I mean, first of all - it's an entire day dedicated to eating home cooked rich and fatty food!  What's NOT to like?  And second, you get the same yummy food and family time as Christmas, but without the stress of present wrapping and making sure to get everything checked off your list! :)

Traditionally, my family and I usually go up to my aunt's house in St. Augustine to celebrate the day with my mom's side of the family.  This year, we decided to hang around Orlando and enjoy the holiday with people who are practically family.  That's right - I got to see Court and the B clan twice in one week!

When we pulled up to their house, I was greeted by the bubbly momma to be - Court! She is so cute preggo, and is just starting to show.  The kitchen was filled with yummy smells, and one of the first things we did after saying hello to everyone was grab a nice hot cup of apple cider - YUM! I forgot how good that stuff is, my mom used to make it when she had holiday parties, but we haven't done those in a while.

Plate number 1 for me, SO much good food!

Court's mother - Bev must have spent an entire week in the kitchen, cooking for about 25 people! We had turkey (of course), stuffing, green bean casserole, mac and cheese (the amazing kind with the hard crust top!), broccoli casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cream corn, jello salad, rolls, and the list goes on!  I'm not going to even get into what there was for dessert....but there was just as much of a selection there as there was for dinner!  She did such an incredible job cooking for all of us, and did it all with a smile.  It was nice to spend the day with them. 

The Dessert Table - SOOO worth it!

After dinner, we all hung outside to enjoy the beautiful Florida weather.  Too bad it wasn't cold at all, but it was nice enough to lounge by the pool - so nice, that one by one we each started to doze off.


WHAT IS IT about Thanksgiving that makes you instantly drowsy and ready for a nap?  The turkey? The large amount of food? Or the feeling of exhaustion from cooking so much at one time?  Well, as my mom and I giggled about the guys dozing off one by one on the couches, I decided to look up exactly WHAT it is....

Apparently - it's the combination of everything about Thanksgiving Day that makes you sleepy.  The turkey has L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid with a documented sleep inducing effect.  That, mixed with the amount of carbs on your plate, food in general, and the relaxation after the meal could knock you right out! Not to mention if you happen to pair all of that with a glass of wine or two...
To read more about this, click below:


http://chemistry.about.com/od/holidaysseasons/a/tiredturkey.htm

My Dad and Mr. Hess - caught you sleeping!

After the boys woke up from their food coma, we all watched some football and hung out for the remainder of the day.  Thanksgiving really is one of my favorite holidays.  It is a chill, stress free day - and like I said before it is DEDICATED to eating! What more could you ask for?

God has truly blessed me and I am so THANKFUL for my family, friends, and the support system I have.  It's days like this day that makes you sit back and think about what you have and how much you can take it for granted.  I am so fortunate to be able to take time and enjoy an entire plate of delicious Thanksgiving food (or in my case, two plates!) THANK YOU to everyone who is a part of and impacts my everyday life - you know who you are - and I wouldn't be nearly as happy without you!

Hope you got to spend the day surrounded with loved ones and yummy food like I did, 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Now off to finish decorating for Christmas....

YUP, I said finish - can't wait for the next Holiday...we start decorating RIGHT when Thanksgiving is over!  

237 days and counting until OUR BIG DAY! 

Until next time,

Presh

Birthday and Family Time - What better way to celebrate than a Low Country Boil?

FINALLY! A weekend that I can take to spend some time with my long lost family! :)

I had a short work commitment this morning until early afternoon, but the rest of the weekend is MINE! :)  We have our very last day of our P.R.E.P. for Marriage class at church  tomorrow, I get to go to my niece's swim meet, and I also meet one of my Bridesmaids for lunch - HM! Before today though, I spent the entire day yesterday with 2 of my girls to celebrate Court's husband's 30th Birthday!

We showed up to her house about 3pm, and the room immediately was filled with big hugs and "HOW ARE YOU?!"s...it had been forever since I got to take a day and just hang with my family.  Court isn't technically family, but I have known her since I was in diapers, so we will often refer to each other as cousins.  BTW - Court is due with her very first baby next April, I CAN'T WAIT until the little one is here, and today was the very first day I got to see her little baby bump! SO CUTE!!!!!!

After a hug from everyone, I enjoyed the afternoon by hanging out with my MOH, (my sister), her family, my parents, my brother and his fiancee, my grandma, and all of Court's family and friends! It was SO nice to just relax, eat, and catch up with everyone.   Before dinner was ready, I got to spend some time in the backyard with my niece and nephew.  They were playing soccer with Mr. Hess when all of the sudden there was a problem.  Check out how Mr. Hess solves this ball catastrophe - very clever!

Besides loving the family time, did I mention what we had to EAT?!  Check out this set-up! I have never really eaten a Low Country Boil before, but I LOVED IT!!!

Low Country Broil! Shrimp, Sausage, Potatoes, and Corn...YUM!

My Grandma, Mom & Dad enjoying the food!

Clean up was a cinch - notice how it's served, on newspaper, and it was DELISH! Two thumbs up from this girl...and as for the cake? Two more thumbs up...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS!!!!!

Well, I'm home - STILL full and still smiling from such a great day.  I can't wait for us to find a house of our own and be able to invite people over for a boil in our backyard.  One step at a time, I guess.  Wedding: working on it.  House: casually looking around.  New Car: Found it! But...in my dreams! ;)

Until next time,

Presh

Me and my sister (MOH!) <3

Wedding Planning Fools!

What an absolutely BEAUTIFUL weekend!!!

Today is November 14th, and I can say that after this month we can really start focusing on the wedding plans!  Up until this month especially, it has been abnormally busy for us both and we finally have a plan of attack to start booking vendors and getting things on the books.  Yesterday, we got to share 2 of our close friends from church's wedding.  Last weekend, I was a Co-Maid of Honor in my friend Brittany's wedding! (I dedicated a post entirely to this, that you will see in the next week or so...) So, you can say we haven't really been able to focus on our own plans until now.

We only have 1 more class left in our P.R.E.P. for marriage class at church, so we felt somewhat accomplished today.  This jump started a chain of events to really get the ball rolling today...

Finally figured out how to use and upload videos on here...check out our ride home from church - ready to start the day of wedding planning!

When we got home, I couldn't help but notice how absolutely gorgeous it is outside today! Wish we could have enjoyed the weather more by doing something outdoors, but we have a wedding to plan!

This is just me, being me....

Blog, check.  Call and e-mail people, check. Now, it's time to work on our wedding website! :)

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

250 days until the BIG DAY!!! 

-Presh

Wedding Show...Yes or No?

A few Sundays ago, I got to experience my first BIG Bridal Show with my mom! Mr. Hess tagged along, but lucky for him he could only stay an hour before he had to be somewhere.

I have been looking forward to going to an official "Wedding Show" since I was a little girl, so I'm glad I got to fulfill my little girl dream! It was surreal to walk into a wedding show, knowing I'm the BRIDE, and my guy was the GROOM! Seemed to make it really official when they label it for you like that...

Mr. Hess and I at the WeddingTV Bridal Show!

As we walk in, we are greeted by a lot of bubbly people, ready to take our information for a raffle later on.  Unfortunately, I never got my raffle tickets - but who am I kidding - we never win any kind of raffle anyways! Oh well...

So we enter the show, look around, and immediately I get one feeling - OVERWHELMED! WOW! There are SO many people, and there is SO much going on!  So I took a deep breath, grabbed a snack (which always makes me feel better) and tried to stay focused.  We were on a mission...to find vendors, and to enter in everything to win anything.  Well, that was my misson - I think Mr. Hess came for the free food.  Just kidding...he is just as excited about this wedding as I am! :)

So we saw some florists, cake shops, wedding coordinators, jewlery, teeth whitening stations, honeymoon destinations, photobooths, department registries, and MORE! We've already gotten a venue, a date set, and a coordinator - so we were looking for anything and everything!

All in all, it was a helpful show to go to.  If you can be patient through the crowds and the lines, it's worth going to shows to at least see what vendors are out there and to meet with them in person.  From this show alone, we potentially have a photographer as well as a florist, and a photobooth! So, it feels like the 5 hours of craziness was worth it.  Just a few pieces of advice to take with you...

1. Don't enter without your raffle tickets.
2. Go to the booths with the food during the fashion show...the lines die down!
3. Don't enter your name in EVERYTHING...just what you're really interested in.  I get e-mails upon e-mails and calls upon calls for things I don't really want to hear about now.
4. Know the process is going to be a little annoying.  Knowing this at least you can be prepared, and not be thrown off when you get pushed and shoved!
5. HAVE FUN! This is a once in a lifetime experience of being engaged and getting married - enjoy every part of it! :)

After the show, we were right down the road from the store I got my gown at (Priscilla of Boston), so I took my mom to pop in and see if they had any mother-of-the-bride dresses!  She found one, but we're still looking for the "ONE" for her.  It was so nice to spend some quality time with her, doing wedding stuff.  I'm looking forward to the next 8 months of planning with her!

Love you Mom!

Until next time,

Presh

Our Engagement Party

So you know the story of the proposal, now here's the story of our Engagement Party...and yes, the story might be just as long! ;)

Ever since we got engaged on August 12th, my mother has been alllll about having an Engagement Party for us when we got home!  I have to say, the thought of celebrating our lives coming together as one - already - was very exciting for me, so I became alllll about it too! The date was set for Sept. 24th, 2010 and we invited our families to come together with our bridal party and closest friends to celebrate our engagement. 

 My mother and my aunts, who came in town to help with the party, made our day very special for us.  The house was decorated with our colors (black and white with accents of pink and green), with crystals everywhere!  There was plenty of great food, drinks, and she even hired a close family friend of ours to take photos the entire time.  I absolutely LOVE how she captures candid shots, and can't wait to share some of them with all of you...

Me and my girls

My mother, (left) and 2 aunts that threw the party!

First, let me begin by saying the day of our big party it was a torrential downpour outside!  Everyone was stuck in traffic, including us, and we showed up looking like wet cats when we finally got inside our parents house.  Luckily, my mother had a hair dryer handy, so we all took turns drying off. Phew.

Despite the horrible weather, I was pleased to see a great group of friends and family come out.  I hadn't seen a lot of these people in quite some time, so I tried to spend my time mingling around, catching up and letting them know how much I appreciated them being there.  What's funny is I barely got to spend any of my time with my groom, but I guess that's good training for the BIG DAY!

From what I hear, it can be a whirlwind of a night and can feel like your bouncing from one table to the next - trying to get to everyone - and I definitely got a preview of that.

Me and my Granddaddy! It was also his birthday!

After most of the guests arrived, my parents gathered us around to make a toast. It started out with my dad addressing the guests, then Scott's dad showed his love with his words, followed by myself.  This entire experience was very emotional for me, but I tried to hide my teary eyes with smiles and laughter.  Little did I know, this night was going to mean a lot more to me than I thought...

The dads toasting to us!

When it was time for Scott to make his toast to the crowd, he immediately got choked up.  I knew he could get emotional (although, to this day he will deny, deny, deny), but I had no idea it would be so hard for him to get through his words.  At the time, I thought "Okay buddy, you can get through this, it's just a toast!" but he really let our family and friends in on the emotional, sweet, and loving side to him that most had only heard about before.

He is known to our friends as a sweet, but mostly wild and crazy kid that knows how to have fun and put a smile on someones face.  Tonight, I think he melted a lot of hearts, including my own.

The entire week, I had asked him over and over, "is it here yet?" talking about my ring.  I couldn't wait for the day I had a ring of my own, and I could barely take the suspense of what it looked like! After two days of telling me it just wasn't going to be here in time for the party, I had learned to accept it...kind of.  

I put on a happy face, but in my mind I was still pretty upset that it wasn't going to be there for the party.  Oh well, I thought - sooner or later I'll have it and I'm sure it will be worth the wait. 

During the middle of his toast, Scott mentioned that I had been wearing his mother's ring, and that mine had taken longer than expected to arrive.  From being the jokester he is, it did not surprise me that what he pulled out next was a HUGE black box with a HUGE costume diamond ring inside, while saying "Here you go....wasn't it worth the wait?!"

I giggled, and took the giant ring, and was ready to give him a hug anyways and then the tears really started flowing.  He couldn't really speak for a minute, and when he pulled himself together I finally figured out what was going on.  He told me to look under the big ring inside of the box, and BAM - there she was in all of her glory.  MY RING!!!! I couldn't believe it!!!!!!! :D

I was SO excited, and couldn't believe the day had finally come where I had MY ring!  When I pulled it out, Scott took it from me and did something I completely didn't see coming.  He got down on one knee, and re-proposed!

We both started balling, and I showered him with hugs and THANK YOUs over and over.  This was one of the greatest nights of my life.



Gathering around to watch the video slide show

I moved over to my parents, giving them their hugs, went to his parents, and then some of my friends.  Everyone wanted to see it, and I was definitely on cloud 9 all over again, feeling the same kind of love I did when he originally proposed.

After a few minutes, my mother then gathered us around to watch a video she had put together filled with photos from our trip to Arkansas, and then photos of us and our families throughout the last few years of dating.  I was so happy to be able to share the trip with everyone there, who didn't get to see the photos of our engagement.

I know my mother worked very hard to give us a special night to celebrate us, and I will always remember the love given to us that night. 

We are so blessed to be surrounded by such loving, inspiring, and caring people in our lives.  THANK YOU to everyone who made it out to celebrate with us.  What a great start to the planning of our wedding! 



Happy Birthday Mr. Hess!

It's that time of year where we celebrate yet another year going by, and in this case, celebrating the birthday of my wonderful fiance!

This year, our birthday gifts to each other (well, Birthday, Christmas, Anniversary, AND Valentines Day gifts combined) are wedding bands! ;) With the wedding being only 8 short months away - HOLY MOLY!!!! - we have to start being smart with where we chose to spend our money!  This year for Mr. Hess's birthday we had a Magic home game (same as last year), so I had to get creative with how I could spoil him from when we woke up, up until about 2pm...

Before he woke up, I wanted to surprise him with a birthday suprise in the living room - wouldn't top last year's set up - but, still impressive I thought! When we got home late Tuesday night, here is what he found waiting for him:

He was truly surprised, and went to bed feeling loved...but he should have known better that I had more in store since we weren't really getting each other "gifts" this year for birthdays...

The next day was his actual birthday.  I can't think of any better way to wake up than breakfast in bed, can you?! Originally, I wanted to take him out to breakfast, but I figured this would be better, and give me a chance to brush up on my skills in the kitchen.  So, I woke up about 8:30am, started a pot of coffee (clearly for me), and started cracking some eggs.  The day before I made a special trip to the grocery store to pick up real eggs and real bacon, since all we have here is egg whites and turkey products....I was hoping he would realize the difference, and also that I was trying to treat him as much as possible! :)

Birthday Breakfast - notice the heart shaped berries!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

He's a HAPPY boy! :)

Since we both had to work later that afternoon, I only had a few hours to spend with him on his day. So, I figured what better way to relax than with massages? Again, saving money this year - I thought I was very clever to use the already paid for massages we had saved up...

SO relaxed...ready to work yet?

It was good to get away from how much was going on this week for at least an hour!

Now, it was off to work - but the celebrating didn't stop there.  One of the girls on my team made him the cutest little cupcakes!  So we celebrated with our amazing singing skills (we really should all just stick to dancing), sang him Happy Birthday, and cut the cake I made him!

Em's amazing cupcakes! They were banana flavored with peanut butter!

The birthday cake I made him!

After the game, we went out to dinner, and a great group of friends showed up! It was so nice to kick back and celebrate the day with my buddy! I always love to celebrate birthdays, because we get to spoil the ones we love.  It didn't hurt that there was also some yummy goodies involved, either. 

Birthday Dinner for Mr. Hess!

Me and the Birthday Boy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!!!!  

-Presh