Keep Calm Carry On..

If you have a Royal Wedding party six days before the actual ceremony, remember to wave on the red carpet (vinyl table cover) as if it was from your chariot/Pope-mobile/carriage/Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade float. 

Remember also to thank your lovely Aunt Anne for hooking everyone up with such delicious treats.  Even if someone took a bite out of a shortbread jelly cookie and put it back (ahem sister). 

Remember also to tell Aunt Anne that she can seriously rock a Tiara. 

Remember to get your sister a cooler, and perhaps a snow suit, considering she ordered the Royal ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins only to discover the people there didn’t know what the heck she was talking about.  Perhaps they missed the memo from corporate? Instead they made her a cake that said: Will 4 Kate 4 Ever.  She picked that baby up and drove the three hours home with zip lock bags of ice on top of it and the air conditioning blowing full force despite the fact it was barely 50 degrees out.  A for effort Sister, A indeed.
Remember that its the thought that counts, not just the presentation.
 
Remember to wear your crown jewel replicas. (remember when I got that beauty?)

Remember to provide your guests with plenty of party flair.

   
Remember to NOT grab Prince Phillip’s face mask, since no one knows who he is anyway (the queen had a husband? Where have I been?)

Remember that if you’re going to a Royal party, it is appropriate to wear the Queen’s favorite jogging suit, especially if you have photo evidence of her wearing it (not at all photo-shopped).
 
Remember that if you are going to a party and stop by GoodWill just hours before, you can have the best outfit of all time.  Well played Theresa, well played. 

Remember that if you bring evidence of your lineage tracing back to the queen (there are a lot of cousins to keep track of), and Kevin Bacon, you are entitled to the most melty will & kate ice cream cake.  Fact.

Remember to tell your mom how rocking she looks with two boobs.  Also just in general :)
 

Remember to have pretty low expectations for the lifetime movie you watch at the party about Will & Kate, but secretly like it anyway.
    
Mostly I hope to remember these things for round two with Emily at 4AM on Friday.  See you there!

Endless hugs, 7 varieties of cheesy potatoes, and BFFs

I had been delaying any major cooking activities (grocery trips, etc.) over the last weekend as I waited by the phone for the news that was a long time coming. In my glorious, fun, loud, and wonderful family (I speak of them often, hi aunts!) we lost our Matriach to cancer this week. A lady who never smoked and was otherwise a picture of health got lung cancer. Go figure. My Grandma was pretty amazing for a multitude of reasons including but not limited to: raising 11 children (much of the time as a single parent), having more stamps in her passport from interesting places (the middle east, asia, you name it) than anyone I've ever known, being totally mellow/zen/yoda-esque, and finding a wonderful balance between strong faith and liberalism (what woman in her eighties is that delicate combo?). She was awesome.
A few months back my dad urged my siblings and I to write about my Grandma, as a gift to my mother. As it turned out, we read what we had written at the services. Kudos to my brother and sister for both being funny and sentimental, and prompting many more hugs. My Aunts and Uncles did a great job making everything so meaningful and personal (special shout out to my own mama!). The church ladies did an excellent job in providing the world's largest varieties of casseroles. No kidding, there had to be 7 types of cheesy potatoes... how could you stay bummed?

Sister was happy about all of the dessert varieties

Our family tree..... leaves = grandma's descendents including great-grandkids. Holy big family.

How great do they look? Beauteous and vintage. Little did they know at the time the impact they would have on so many lives.

Love you Grandma! In addition to the church food, we had plenty of other unhealthy comfort food at our disposal. Oh that's right. We tri-ed some. With AE dip... life changing.

After 2938749832749872398947239874 hugs later (although you can never, ever have too many), I drove the SIX HOURS home and got in around 10pm last night. Weary traveler that I was, I was a hot mess getting up to my apartment. Someone in the elevator even had to help me with all of my saddlebags. So you can imagine my delight when I opened the door and saw this waiting for me:

With a wonderful note (I knew giving her a key to my place was a smart move)

...so I checked my fridge:

Goodies!

And as I blissfully munched on a dark chocolate covered strawberry, I couldn't help but notice all of the little notes around the place:

She is correct, my new table IS sweet. Pictures to come. Hey, even Bubba got in on the action (like that is a surprise):

and an Animaniacs quote that had me smiling while I brushed my teeth this morning :)

Thanks Emily, way to turn this frown upside down! In related news, my college roommie and BFF Nickie will be arriving for the weekend in just a few short hours. Quality time with friends makes EVERYTHING better, I'm convinced. Plus we'll be doing some cooking this weekend :) stay tuned!

Queen Alisa

Congratulations to my sister, her high school's Homecoming Queen!!

She was such a trooper in her skimpy but BEAUTIFUL BCBG dress (we picked it out together, remotely via conference call and our respective computers) and adorable shoes. It was FREEZING. I'm thinking 40-ish degrees with some seriously gruelling wind. She looked so pretty and was gracious and excited to get the crown.

Needless to say, we were pretty stoked for her. Kudos for Aunt Anne and Grandma making the trip down! Also shout out to John who drove 2.5 hours to see the last 20 minutes of the game and coronation, and then turned around and drove straight back (he late afternoon and early morning practice). What a guy.

My mom dug up my old high school homecoming crown, which obviously made for lots of fun montage pictures. Then... naturally I proceeded to wear the Tiara around the house for the weekend, as everyone should. (right Aunt Sheila and Aunt Sara? So fun)

Meanwhile my project for the weekend (while Alisa and mom were off at Senior pictures and dad was at the office) was to organize my stuff from 8 rubbermaid tubs to 4. My parents have moved a few times since my brother and I were in High School. They've always let us use their house as a storage facility (which we MUCHO appreciate, as some of our friends are not so lucky)... but because our 'rooms' aren't enshrined to us, things like yearbooks and such (that, let's face it, don't so much fit in my studio apartment that has 1.12 closets) must go somewhere. I had never cleaned out these bins and as someone who LOVES organization. I can't believe that I waited so long. Check out this beauty:

HAHAHAH.... what the heck? I blame my BFF from H.S. Amy and our love of the movie 'she's all that'.

Other treasures I found include:

• Trays from the Panhellenic sorority house dining hall that bowler and I used for sledding, as trays at quarter draws (they made visits to the bar... until we got in trouble for that), crafting (they looked SO much better with puff paint on them) and occasionally to hold our food.
• Love notes from junior high. Hilarious.
• Girl Scout badges.. for camping. yeah right.
• 293874923874982734987 newspaper clippings of us on the front page. The joys of living in a small town (cheerleading competitions, fundraisers, essay compeitions, the list goes on)
• Old trophies from a flute competition I went to in 5th grade.
• Old birthday cards and poems from college friends making St. Pat's special 2002-2005 :)
• Student Council Camp pictures galore and the handbook. MASC anyone?
• My pre-school name tag from my desk (adorable!)
  
  From this...........

To this... labeled and fabulous. Including one for seasonal clothes (goodbye white pants... we shall meet again after easter 2010)

Did I mention how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to my parent's house? It's completely in the middle of nowhere and the scenery just mellows me out. I used to not get cell service there further making it an escape (although I'm glad I have it now, how would I be able to text everyone that Alisa won otherwise!)

When I got home I had all kinds of plas for creating a Beauteous and blog-worthy meal. However tomorrow I leave for Vegas for a week so my motivation for major grocery shopping was blah at best. What to do? Obviously walk down to the bakery and have sweets for dinner instead (disclaimer I had nuts/cheese/grapes and POM juice first, healthifying things a tad).

Amazing.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and congrats again to my beautiful sister (although she totally doesn't read the blog) for being the charming, smart, fun, competent, beautiful Queen that she is and making us all proud all of the time.

Happy Monday folks!

Technology Upgrades and a Staycation

Happy post-Memorial Day! Oh man... as someone who semi-lives out of my car/suitcase, it feels pretty strange to be staying in town the one weekend where everyone and their dog is traveling to a lake or 3-day weekend destination. John and I had a very grown up weekend (nearly everything we did had more old people and families than kids our own age). I always am wanting to experience what my own city has, so John and I decided to have a KC tourist-themed weekend.

But first, let's start with the most exciting thing that happened this week/year/century/A.D.. Perhaps you've seen me cruising around town looking like this: Well... after four years, I thought perhaps it was time to upgrade (yes, it is possible to have a phone that long, and yes, i felt like Oprah would be proud of how 'simple' my life is with my lack of technology). Behold the cell from 2005:

Behold, the cell as of Thursday evening:

TA-DA!!!! I solemnly swear not to be one of those obnoxious i-phone people who insist their device is the answer to everything and bring it up in nearly every conversation *cough* my brother *cough* BUT... it is great. After just 2 days I had four pages of apps. Yowza.

Satuday was all abou the Great American BBQ festival. Too bad it turned out to be the red headed step child of KC's HUGE bbq festival (the american royal) in the fall. Is it bad that it made John and I missed how classy the state fair was?

It had a lot of old-timey root beer. I love things that are old-timey. Do you see where it says deep fried twinkies on the sign? awesome... and gross... but still awesome. I resisted. Does that make me awesome?

We didn't stay long because it was 90+ degrees (creeping up in boy band territory) and on miles of hot asphalt. Also we walked right past the free samples place and it was closed by the time we figured out where it was. Ahhhh nuts. There was a country-esque band playing that was good.... but kind of hilarious in their name/marketing pitch. Miss Major and her Minor Mood Swings (or something to that effect) that stressed how much SASS they had. Awesome. I love these country festivals. (and below for your viewing pleasure, a not so photogenic photo of two heat exhausted people)

Sunday we hit up the World War I Museum. It's the only WWI Museum in the country (there's not even one in DC, isn't that crazy?) and let me tell you, it's awesome. It ranks right up there with Museums/Memorials on the Mall... if not outshining them. We only gave ourselves an hour to go through, but spent the whole time saying we need to come back when we have 10 hours. Good stuff, people.

Then John and I had a picnic in-between Union Station and the Liberty Memorial/WWI Museum. The Kansas City Symphony played as they shot fireworks off from behind the memorial. It was really neat... (minus when the 50,000 people there... no seriously, that's how many they estimated, tried to leave the same parking garages at the same time)

There was a lot of saluting and paying tribute to the troops. I kind of felt like I was cheating on the fourth of July with these moments.

Monday was a Royals Game. BOO they lost. 9 to nothing. And it rained. However the new stadium renovations look AWESOME.

Then we tried to go to the renovated movie theater a few blocks from my apartment. They've got recliners and all you can eat seats and we were STOKED. However, the show was sold out. So... obviously... we went for redbox and a trip to the bakery down the street.

And then John fell in love with Red Velvet Cake.

YUM.

Hope your holiday weekend was fabulous!! :) I'm getting a facial tonight (woohoo) and then this week will be cooking up a storm. A healthy storm. A Hurricane of vegetables and other good things. Eh?