Dinner at Ryan's

Some of my most favorite times with Al's family are during our family dinners at Ryan's. The cute kids don't hurt either...

Serving at PRC

My small group occasionally serves at the Pregnancy Resource Center of Champaign. Tonight, I headed there after work to join the girls in lending the clinic a helping hand. We dusted, we vacuumed, we scrubbed...all with a smile on our faces. Much of this smiling was probably due to Holly's amazing choice of music (Michael Jackson, and plenty of 90s R&B/hip-hop classics!)

Amy takin' out the trash...

and Alyssa Febrezin'!

The place looked great when we left. It's so satisfying to help someone out in this way, and it doesn't hurt to do it with people you really enjoy!

New Wedding Details

Al and I will be getting married on June 25, 2011 at 4pm on the beach at the NOW Jade Riviera Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Our guests' rooms will be booked through Apple Vacations. We are working with Jennifer Wayland at Island Bridal. Feel free to contact her with any questions about your flight or your stay at the hotel!

Pricing for our group is as follows:

	Oceanfront (on beach) 4 nights / 7 nights	Oceanview (view of beach) 4 nights / 7 nights	Tropical View (no view of beach) 4 nights / 7 nights
1 person per room	$1186/$2086 per person	$734/$1280 per person	$692/$1448 per person
2 people per room	$608/$1058 per person	$552/$960 per person	$510/$888 per person
3 people per room	$604/$1051 per person	$548/$953 per person	$506/$881 per person
Child 2 and under	$35 per child	$35 per child	$35 per child
Child Age 3-12	$165/$262 per child	$165/$262 per child	$165/$262 per child

***These prices are all-inclusive (includes stay at the hotel, food, drinks, alcoholic beverages and snorkeling gear) but do not include flights.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending by emailing me at monteer2@gmail.com! We need to have a relatively good idea of who is going by September 1st-ish!

Exasperation

Planning a wedding, no matter how small or "easy" it is supposed to be is difficult and stressful. Al and I should finally have some word to get out to everyone by Wednesday night via email, so be on the lookout! You better believe I will be having a mini-celebration once we make some of these foundational decisions and start getting this in motion for our guests!

Welcome Home Party!

Our friends, Abbie and Weston just returned from their beautiful wedding in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Today, we attended their Welcome Home Party at the Danville Boat Club.

We got to visit with Abbie and Weston's families, hang out with some work friends, and enjoy some delicious food and sangria! Yum! :)

We are so excited for Abbie and Weston and look forward to hanging out with them more when they move to Champaign! Woo hoo!

Luau!

Tonight, I attended a luau thrown by Kim and her boyfriend, Ryan! We especially had a blast playing with baby Andrew, and the million small dogs who attended the party.

Notice Buster Brown's sweet hawaiian shirt!

Everyone wore their best hawaiian get-up!

And, as usual, Kim and I had to take a silly picture!

A great way to wrap up the summer! :)

Sister Fun Day!

Katy and I have a running tradition of "Sister Fun Days". Starting when I went off to college and we couldn't see each other as much as we'd like to, we started planning outings together-shopping, movies, errands, whatever. We usually take lots of pictures and find some way to publicly embarrass ourselves.

Today's Sister Fun Day started with going out to pick up dinner and meds for our sick momma-how fun! :) Then, we decided to head over to David's Bridal in Aurora so that Katy could try on the dresses that I picked out a few days before. She looked beautiful...as usual!

 

Afterwards, Katy and I headed to the theater to see Eat, Pray, Love-thoroughly enjoyable.

As usual, I had an amazing time with my favorite sister. Katy heads off to Marquette in a couple of weeks and I fear that our Sister Fun Days are going to be few and far between. However, I am looking forward to heading to Milwaukee many times to visit Katy in a new setting. Hooray!

America's Next Top Model: Bridesmaid Edition

Kimmy d. and I made our very first trip to David's Bridal today after TurboKick-my first time ever in any bridal store! (I know this is bad writing but I have to make my plug. TurboKick is every Tuesday/Thursday from 5:30-6:15 at the Springer Cultural Center in Champaign. It is an amazing workout taught by my good friend, Colleen. She's awesome! My guns are seriously getting sculpted! haha)

Okay, back on track. Our visit to DB was a blast! Plus, I think the employees appreciated our sweaty bods in their pretty dresses! :)

Kimmy d. was my first bridesmaid to try on any dresses for me, and she did a fantastic job. She was opinionated but not at all pushy. She made it clear that she would be willing to wear whatever I wanted her to, but was totally honest with me about everything she put on. We narrowed our selection down to three dresses that we both liked; we thought these dresses would offer a good variety of choice to my bridesmaids so they could choose whatever looks best on them. Each dress is chiffon or jersey (both very light, breezy fabrics) and will be ordered in a color called guava-how saucy!

This was Kim's favorite
and is choice #1.

 This was my favorite and is choice #2. Kim also found fun and interesting ways to wear the dress, which sent us into a fit of giggles thinking about a similar scene with Tai in the movie Clueless-if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about! 

This is choice #3 in the jersey fabric.

This is what we ended up with...

these three dresses

in this color :)

All in all, this was a wonderful way to spend an evening with one of my favorite ladies in the whole world! As usual, we had to take some time to be super silly...

A very stylish runaway bride.

Disaster

Today, I emerged from a relaxing shower only to realize that disaster had struck. My work laptop looked horribly disheveled and I stood there in shock for a moment as I started to understand what happened. My jump drive (with all of my lessons, powerpoints, assignments, etc. from the past year and then some) was sticking out of my laptop at a 90 degree angle. To my right sat little miss Mila looking so sweet and innocent.

How could someone so adorable do something so wretched to me?! After experiencing shock, panic, and then tremendous anger, I have finally reached the acceptance stage. I am actually starting to think this might be a good thing. (I use the word "might" very strongly here...) Many teachers get into a routine after a while and default to the same thing every single year. I don't ever want to be that kind of boring teacher, so this forces me to look at things with an entirely fresh perspective this year. We'll see if I still feel that way when I head back to work next week...

Workin' Out

Al and I have been attempting to motivate each other to work out more lately. We typically work out separately, but this morning we headed to the gym together. Afterward, we headed to the store to get some things for a healthy lunch. I love these "boring" weekend days together, just doing normal life stuff and I am looking forward to many, many more!

V. Picasso

At our engagement party, Al and I were lucky to get the gift of a V. Picasso gift certificate from Jeff and Holly. We went out tonight to eat some delicious food and do a little wedding planning. I got tapas (spinach croquette, stuffed dates, and pincha puerco-definitely try the stuffed dates if you get a chance!) and Al got the ribeye. We also shared  a pitcher of sangria-the best part of the meal! :)

I felt like a doofus walking in with my wedding planning book (a gift from Becky), but we were able to get a lot of the groundwork laid for our upcoming nuptials! Hooray! I also tortured Al by asking our waiter to take our picture but he toughed it out, even when our waiter guided us toward the front of the restaurant for a better background. Haha, poor Al! I think the picture turned out pretty nice though!

Mani/Pedi

Al's sister, Holly invited me to indulge in a hot stone pedicure with her today at Pretty Nails in Urbana.

Our nails turned out great! However, what was even better than that was getting to spend some QT with my almost sis-in-law. I'm so lucky to have found such a wonderful friend in Holly. I would love Al no matter who his family was, but I got really lucky with the Nukus/Melbys/Hills!

Practice Baby

Al and I often refer to our puppy, Mila as our "practice baby". However, this little lady has become a lot more than just a stinky ball of fur to us. We treat her as if she is our human child. Here are some examples:

This picture graces the cover of my work laptop, a present made for me by one of my bridesmaids, Abbie.

We make sure she is dressed fashionably! The bow was a gift from another bridesmaid of mine, Kimmy d.

Mila gets mani/pedis.

Dad engages in staring contests with Mila.

We often refer to her as "King of the Castle". :)

Mila sleeps like a human when she's sick.

Poor Mila Moo had to get spayed on Monday and did not feel well at all afterward. She was very sick and shaking a lot the first 24 hours. Luckily, we took very good care of her (see picture above) and she is feeling much better now. Also, as intended, we have no baby Milas to worry about!

Anyway, Al and I know that we have a strange relationship with our pet, but we can't seem to help loving this smelly dog so much! ;)

Wedding details...so far!

We will be holding our ceremony at the NOW Jade Riviera in Riviera Maya, right outside of Cancun.

We'll be making all arrangements through our travel agent, Jennifer Wayland of Island Bridal. She is awesome, and I know everyone will enjoy working with her.

Al and I will be speaking with Jennifer about some details on Thursday evening, and we will notify everyone of anything we find out price-wise as soon as possible. We are so excited that so many of our family members and friends want to join us on the big day! Until then, here's what we have to look forward to...

The Knot

Can't wait!

Mrs. Carter

One of my friends, Abbie Myer (now Abbie Carter) got married on the beaches of Mexico today!

Abbie and I spent countless hours over the past two years talking about getting married and planning out the perfect weddings in our minds. We couldn't wait to change the names above our doors at school, and start being called Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Nuku, instead of Ms. Myer and Ms. Monteer. I am so incredibly happy for Abbie and her new husband, Weston. They are going to have a beautiful marriage and I can't wait to watch it all play out! Love you guys!

Pictures taken by wedding photographer at Secrets Resort, Riviera Maya, Mexico.