Wedding Weekend 2

Well I attended another wedding of a cousin this weekend. Sadly I have no pictures to show for it yet, but I did some dancing with the girl cousins from the other side of the family and hopefully there will be some sweet pics of it soon. Zack and I attended the wedding alone, so we had to sit with people we didn't know at the reception. It turned out to be ok, because Zack is good at talking small talk, and then I take over after that talking about mental illness and social justice (which is exactly what happened - Zack started off with, "So how do you know Jackie and Brian ((the wedding couple))?" and eventually I took off with "What do you do?" which led to a conversation about what I do, which ultimately led to a conversation about the soldiers coming back from Iraq with PTSD). I sure know how to party!

This week at work I'm getting new carpet in my office, which has meant boxing up all my stuff and moving it around so the carpet people can do their work. This also means no fancy work clothes! Getting dressed in the morning with this in mind has been a little difficult. I mean, really, what do you wear to work when you're supposed to be carrying on your daily duties and moving boxes/furniture in your spare time? Well, for me it's been plaid shirts, jeans and/or leggings, and very sad attempts at keeping my very short hair out of my face. As you can see below, the only way to keep the hairs from getting in my eyes is by tying a scarf around my big head. This also keeps the baby hairs in the back from getting too wild and out of control. I know it's a little Aunt Jemima but it's super fun, and who doesn't want a big bow on top of their head? Not only is it semi-cute and fashionable, it's very functional! Who knew?
My friend Tara from Hair Treasures moved to town this week, as well. So welcome to Bloomington Tara! We've already had some fun times together and I think we are going to be best buds soon (maybe I should ask Tara how she feels about me before posting this on the interweb?). Also, today is Jessica's BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy birthday Jessie! I already left her a singing message on her iPod telephone, but if you haven't told her yet, get to it! The clock is ticking! She's a whopping 27 years old today!

And lastly, Jared, Tara, and I went to Casa Brava on the east side for lunch yesterday, and sitting out in the parking lot was this truck, totally loaded and full with bread, baking in the sun.

Weird. Well, have a good week and please don't forget your bread in the back of your vehicle.

Wedding Weekend

Well, I have decided to take a break from the fashion blog and will return when I have a worthy camera. So sorry to my avid readers, I hope my life experience will suffice for now.

This weekend my cousin Nathan got married, so we (Jared, Zack, and I) traveled up to the great little town of Fairmount to see the family and attend the nuptuals. The weather was rather threatening for most of the day, but the cloudy skies cleared up for the ceremony, which was held outside. It was beautiful and thankfully my Aunt Marilyn came prepared with several kleenexes she graciously gave my sisters and me, since we could barely keep it together during the ceremony (it's a family curse). They passed out bubbles after the ceremony so we could blow them at the couple as they ran to the getaway car (which looked like the Bat-mobile); sadly Jared blew all of his bubbles into my hair and didn't have any left to give to the newly weds. The reception was a dessert bar, which caused the boys to complain the whole time about not being fed dinner. The desserts were incredibly delicious, yet left us yearning for salty things, so we called Pizza King and ordered some late night dinner snacks. However, shortly after the desserts were served, the dancing began, which caused me to forget my hunger for a while. My sisters and girl cousins joined me on the dance floor for a few songs, and even my dad made an appearance to show off his moves:

My mother took this opportunity to take a few photographs of the family dancing:

From the left is Breezey (showing off her signature move), cousin Abbey (lookin' fine in her kelly green bridesmaid dress), cousin Josh (who didn't stay long on the dance floor) cousin Lesley (who teased us all by taking off her sweater and throwing it on the ground), the Cass attack (who showed off her pop 'n lock skills), and me, looking absolutely ridiculous.

Here we are again, lookin' even better than before.
And here we are singin' our hearts out to the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA," which ultimately caused Breezey's voice to crack a few times during her lovely rendition of "Softly and Tenderly" in church the next morning. And to those of you wondering if Breezey really does have Turret's Syndrome (she really thinks she has it)- I have tried for days now to stress her out enough to make her do that weird head shake (although my parents swear she does it) and she hasn't done it. As far as I can tell she just hiccups a lot. So sorry, Breeze, I think you're normal like the rest of us.

Happy Anniversary, Cheeks!

Today is our one year anniversary! We traveled down to Story, Indiana and had lunch at the Story Inn. We then traveled over to Nashville where we got some homemade ice cream and visited the candy shop! What a lovely afternoon. Here are some of our accomplishments for this first year of marriage: one major surgery, living in an apartment that was way too small, the breaking of a bedroom window by a phantom cinder block, giving away a kitty cat, six Christmas parties in four days, recording for the new Rodeo album, starting graduate school, losing a van, gaining a truck, quitting a job, buying a house, moving into the new house, gaining a brotherly roommate, one major haircut, and the start of a blog. Oh and several meals made by Jared with a "secret ingredient." I think i covered all the high points!

I've been trying to watch Valley Girl with Jared, but he had to keep pausing the movie to take still pictures for a Flannelgraph project and I couldn't take it anymore! So I thought I'd share a fun outfit with you. I tried our actual digital camera this time, which didn't turn out much better at all! The camera takes much better youtubes than pictures. This was something I wore last week to work - when it was super hot and I couldn't help but get my showdahs out.
I love this shirt! Just another billowy tank top that hides all your jiggly parts! Sadly these pants I'm wearing are a bit too small, so I have to wear something billowy with them so you can't tell they don't really fit! And of course, as always, I gots to wear my red wedges. The maintenance man at work told me I look like a flapper with my big bow and my long beads. I'll take that as a compliment! I'm getting used to my short hair and having lots of fun with it! As always, I'll continue to work on my camera problems. Hope you have a great weekend and let me know if you need financial counseling due to your addictive gambling behaviors - I just got some training about it and I have lots of worksheets to help you fill out!

Jessie, are you there?

I would like you to know that I've bared my shoulders at work the last 2 days. I hope you are proud of me, you know how difficult it is for me to dress like it is summer time.

The last week has been rather difficult for me. I guess I never realized how much death would be a part of my life when working in the addictions field. In the last week, I've known two women to pass away, struggling with their addictions to the very end. It breaks my heart really. It kinds of leaves me with a helpless feeling, like there isn't anything I can do about it. I think I have to believe that we social workers help in some small way, even if the end result is tragic.

I start Fall classes in two weeks and don't quite feel prepared. Thankfully, one class is online and the other is on a night when Jess has class too, so we can carpool! And chat the whole way there! Jess claims she took some pictures of her outfit the other day for the blog, but I haven't seen any evidence yet, so I think we should all harrass her until she gets it together and gives us some pictures! Hope you have a great evening and don't forget to get your showdas out.

P.S. I came up with this great idea that I am crafty and have bought some supplies. I can't wait to show you the results of this ridiculous notion.

FB Post #5

So.... I took the plunge and cut off all my hair last week! Yikes! I'm still getting used to it. My friend Kyle said I look like "the old Annie" which makes me feel like I had a hair relapse. I didn't quite want it to look like the same haircut I've had over and over again, but I think it does anyway. So I'm trying to get over that and love it for being short and out of my way! I do love the color more than anything - I love having dark hair! Sunday night I worked the overnight shift at the women's house (I get to sleep), so I got home Monday morning and had about 1/2 hour to get ready for work. I decided to keep things real simple, just jeans and a nice breezy shirt - especially since its super hot outside.

I made Jared take this picture after I got home from work and was feeling a little disheveled, so sorry about that! I love this shirt from H&M (clearance!), the bow is in the perfect spot to cover up any unwanted belly jiggling. I also can't get enough of these leopard print shoes I bought at the Goodwill - I know you can't see them well, but I'm still wanting for an actual camera. And my short hair! Wowzas (just a little greasy here)!

The cookout went well on Saturday. I kicked butt in the all-girl Skip Bo game - please don't believe all the rumors flying around that I was a tyrant during the game. I just helped the gals stay focused on what was important (the game). Jared also made more food than we could ever eat in one day and we are still trying to polish off the leftovers! Frank disappeared sometime during the cookout and didn't say good bye to anyone, in true Frank weirdness. He said later he was going to another party and didn't want to tell anyone because he knew we'd yell at him. I'm not sure why he thought we wouldn't yell at him for being a dingus and just leaving! Geesh, get it together Frank! Since the Skip Bo game I've noticed I've been a little more bossy, I think all that winning (I also won a game of spoons, well straws, we didn't have any clean spoons) went to my head. I'll try to take it down a notch. Well, that's about all I have for now. Hope you stay cool and come over soon so I can beat you at card games. Also, my sister is coming home from France today, so hopefully nothing crazy will happen and she'll get home with all her belongings and without puking her guts out!

Fashion Blog Post # 4

One of my sweet finds on our Indy Goodwill tour was this fun green skirt. It has this great pleat in the front and even better buttons on the sides (and of course it has pockets, could it get any better?) I left the house wearing tan shoes, but found my red wedges in the car and immediately realized how much better they would be with this outfit! Everyone needs a pair of red shoes, they literally go with everything.

If you don't have red shoes, please get some. I'm still working slowly at finding an actual camera to take my pictures, but until then you'll have to settle for my husband's camera phone (and my kitty cat hanging out in the background). Also, please take one last look at my ratty long hair - cause I'm cutting it off tomorrow! I'm pretty excited about it- I often grow my hair out long and then realize that it's much better short. Long hair makes my head hurt more and takes too long to dry/fix/straighten/anything. I don't have the patience for it! And my body can't take the added headaches!

As you may know, I also love the tv television series Beverly Hills 90210. Well, if you're a fan, you may remember Emily Valentine. She was Brandon's crazy girlfriend who tried to set their parade float on fire. Here she is with her cool biker hair:

In a later season, Emily popped back up with this even worse haircut - I think she was supposed to look older and more mature, but really she just looked awful:

Well last night I had a dream that I went to get my hair cut and this is what they did to me! I was pretty upset that I looked this ridiculous, and walked out of the salon without paying for my haircut! I would never actually do this, however, if my hairdresser happens to cause me to look like freaking Emily Valentine, I will argue my way out of paying for her services. I refuse to look like a dingus (sorry Emily).

In other news - the Cheeks are having a cookout on Saturday 8/7 at 6:00 pm and you are invited. This is a housewarming/welcome home Zack party! So bring your dance jams and some snacks with you and we'll party all night long.

Fashion Blog Post # 3

This weekend Jess and I hit some Goodwills in the Indianapolis area - we are super obsessed with vintage dresses currently. A couple months ago I hit the jackpot at the Marion Goodwill finding some awesome shirt dresses, one of which is displayed below:
I found these navy blue platform sandals at Ragorama this weekend as well, believe it or not, they are from Jessica Simpson's line! I also found this lovely cross-stitch bird necklace at Ragorama:
Isn't it adorable? I could probably make one myself.... but I haven't tried to cross-stitch in a long time. Maybe that'll be my next project. I've been wearing a lot of blue lately, because I feel like I can pair it with so many other colors- like my red necklace and yellow headband! Love love love it! Hope you had a great weekend, I'm off to eat some dinner snacks Jared just made on the grill. Thanks dearie.