Speaking of Andy's surprise party... It was awesome! I was able to keep it from him until the actual surprise which I didn't think I'd be able to do. He spent the day with his brother and pastor golfing. I spent the previous evening and morning with my sister getting ready for the party but told him we were doing wedding stuff. LoL! So we started by going to party city to get the tableware and balloons. All I have to say is.. WOW! is that place expensive! The tableware for 36 guests came out to like $32. That was double what I had budgeted since I had done research on their site about pricing. Um.. apparently store prices and online prices are completely different. Who'da thunk it? So we ran to Wal-Mart to get all the food stuff like hamburger buns, ketchup, hamburgers, drinks, etc. Just because my curiosity got the best of me, I took a quick trip over to the party supply isle to do some price comparisons. Needless to say, the exact same products costs less than half of what I paid at Party City. I was pretty proud of my find and returned all the other stuff. I love saving money! :-) Anyway... Sarah and I headed to Matt's to start the party set-up. The party was set to start at 3:00 p.m. with Andy arriving between 3:15 & 3:30. Around 1:00, Matt called to say that Andy was super anxious to get back to the house because the Flyer's game was supposed to start at 3:00. For the next 2 hours, Sarah and I were trying to come up with excuses to keep Andy away. So we had everything set-up by 2:00 and decided to start making the hamburgers around 2:30 and keep them warm in the oven until Andy arrived. Since I'm no grill master, I was very hesitant to make them myself. I got the first 12 on the grill and realized I didn't have anything to flip them with. LoL! Thankfully, Todd offered to cook them and according to his wife is a "grill master" (they did turn out pretty freaking fantastic). That was a complete blessing. Right around 2:40 some of the guests called to let me know they were running late. Oh boy! God must have been on my side during that time because Andy actually fell asleep on the drive back to Matt's (Matt was driving so don't worry) which allowed Matt to take a nice long detour. Because of that nice detour, all the guests arrived before Andy so the surprise wasn't spoiled... Yay! All the guests crowded into the dining room for the big "surprise" until he walked into the door. All 32 of us screamed "surprise" as he walked around the corner and his mouth just dropped! It was absolutely fantastic! We had awesome, awesome food including baked artichoke dip, pigs in a blanket, potato and macaroni salads, baked beans, hamburgers, and a bunch of other goodies.
Some of the guests:
Miss Cathy
Megan and Eli
The Bentzel & Slimmer Families, Susan
The other Bentzel: Shane
Sig & Liz
Angie & Jim
Mom & Katelynn
Wendy
Sarah
Mom, Bill, & Matt
Of course: The guest of honor and his adoringly beautiful girlfriend (I'm not biased... no... not at all):
Mmmmm! Cake!
This cake was soooo freaking fantastic! I highly recommend getting your cake from COSTCO because they're amazing (and fairly inexpensive)! We had a really great time hanging with all our friends and family and were so grateful for everyone being there. :-)
On the business front.... Not much is happening there. It's been kind of crazy this week with Kristi returning. I'm still trying to get over my shyness with calling prospective clients. Haven't quite figured that out yet but I figure if I do a lot of praying, it'll come. I'm pretty sure I have a few more clients who are soon ready to sign-up which is good. My goal is to hit ED (executive director) by the end of June, although if I don't get over my shyness I definitely won't hit it.
I'm really excited for this weekend. It'll be nice to have a relaxing, three day weekend with my two favorite people. Tomorrow, we're planning to hit up some yard sales since I don't have a single piece of summer clothing that fits me (not even the Perfect Fit buttons are helping!) and going grocery shopping. Oh, and of course cleaning! Sunday we have church in the morning and our 2nd annual Backyard Bash in the evening. I'm totally stoked for that! :-) It's going to be a great time with food, friends, and games. Unfortunately, Kristi wasn't able to be here last year so I'm really happy she'll be able to participate this year.
On the knitting front... I'm super excited about a yarn I just recently found. The Chambersburg SnB' group I'm part of is doing a KAL from June through August. Our theme is socks-Yay! I am obsessed with the fun, bright colors of sock yarn so this is the perfect KAL for me. I have about 4 different pairs of socks on needles right now--mostly because I'm so impatient when I find a new, lovely sock yarn that I just have to find the perfect pattern and CO. Well, the challenge for this KAL is to pick a more challenging pattern. The first pair of socks I finished was the Brigit Sock. The pattern uses a cable and twist stitch so it was a little challenging for me. My personal challenge for this KAL is to create my own sock pattern. I found a stitch in a dictionary called the Flemish Block Lace Stitch and decided that I eventually wanted to use it for a sock pattern. After finding this awesome yarn at Uncommon Threads called Batika, I spent about 3 hours going
through the Ravelry sock patterns. I found 5 or 6 patterns I liked but was worried that they wouldn't show very well because of this yarn. So I figured out my gauge and decided to make my own pattern. I added two stitches to make 64 and CO. I am now through one pattern repeat and on my foot it went (these are top down, btw). Ugh! I am so disappointed because it seems too big! I've already graduated to a size 1 and am worried if I drop the needles to a size 0, it'll be difficult. There is a part in the pattern where you have to k3tog and I was already having difficulty with that on the 1's. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to use a different yarn. Batika seems a little thicker than most sock yarns; the company suggests using a size 3 or 4 needle instead of a 1 or 2. I do have a few other sock yarns in my stash so I might use one of them instead. I've had a skein of TOFUtsies by SouthWest Trading Company in my stash for like 2 years because every time I find a pattern I like, the business of the yarn makes it unnoticeable. I'm thinking it could possibly be good for the pattern I'm creating. As for my other started projects: I started the Daisy Stitch Tunic as featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits and it's going very well. Since this is going to be a Christmas present, I'm putting it down for now to start the project for the KAL. I'm about half finished the front panel already. :-) I'm thinking it's going to be a pretty quick knit, which is definitely a plus because I'm thinking once I finish losing my weight that I might make one for myself. I definitely want to try the Ambrosia Cardigan also featured in the same magazine. It reminds me of a corset and is so beautiful! Hm.. What else is on my needles? Oh, my first attempt at 2-at-a-time using the Sweet Pea pattern by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I'm thinking of frogging these and using the yarn for my KAL but haven't decided yet. I think that pattern would look better with the Batika yarn instead. As I have them started, I'm using Red Heart's Heart & Sole in the colorway featured on the page. I really want to finish up my Messenger Bag which I started over 2 years ago but ran out of yarn. I'm using Lamb's Pride Bulky and love the colors. I think I'll only need 1 more skein of each color. This is going to be fantastic when it's finished! I got my winning yarn in the mail earlier this week. My first idea was to make a purse and felt it because the colors are just so gorgeous, but it would be super small so I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use it for. Here's a picture:
On the knitting front... I'm super excited about a yarn I just recently found. The Chambersburg SnB' group I'm part of is doing a KAL from June through August. Our theme is socks-Yay! I am obsessed with the fun, bright colors of sock yarn so this is the perfect KAL for me. I have about 4 different pairs of socks on needles right now--mostly because I'm so impatient when I find a new, lovely sock yarn that I just have to find the perfect pattern and CO. Well, the challenge for this KAL is to pick a more challenging pattern. The first pair of socks I finished was the Brigit Sock. The pattern uses a cable and twist stitch so it was a little challenging for me. My personal challenge for this KAL is to create my own sock pattern. I found a stitch in a dictionary called the Flemish Block Lace Stitch and decided that I eventually wanted to use it for a sock pattern. After finding this awesome yarn at Uncommon Threads called Batika, I spent about 3 hours going
through the Ravelry sock patterns. I found 5 or 6 patterns I liked but was worried that they wouldn't show very well because of this yarn. So I figured out my gauge and decided to make my own pattern. I added two stitches to make 64 and CO. I am now through one pattern repeat and on my foot it went (these are top down, btw). Ugh! I am so disappointed because it seems too big! I've already graduated to a size 1 and am worried if I drop the needles to a size 0, it'll be difficult. There is a part in the pattern where you have to k3tog and I was already having difficulty with that on the 1's. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to use a different yarn. Batika seems a little thicker than most sock yarns; the company suggests using a size 3 or 4 needle instead of a 1 or 2. I do have a few other sock yarns in my stash so I might use one of them instead. I've had a skein of TOFUtsies by SouthWest Trading Company in my stash for like 2 years because every time I find a pattern I like, the business of the yarn makes it unnoticeable. I'm thinking it could possibly be good for the pattern I'm creating. As for my other started projects: I started the Daisy Stitch Tunic as featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits and it's going very well. Since this is going to be a Christmas present, I'm putting it down for now to start the project for the KAL. I'm about half finished the front panel already. :-) I'm thinking it's going to be a pretty quick knit, which is definitely a plus because I'm thinking once I finish losing my weight that I might make one for myself. I definitely want to try the Ambrosia Cardigan also featured in the same magazine. It reminds me of a corset and is so beautiful! Hm.. What else is on my needles? Oh, my first attempt at 2-at-a-time using the Sweet Pea pattern by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I'm thinking of frogging these and using the yarn for my KAL but haven't decided yet. I think that pattern would look better with the Batika yarn instead. As I have them started, I'm using Red Heart's Heart & Sole in the colorway featured on the page. I really want to finish up my Messenger Bag which I started over 2 years ago but ran out of yarn. I'm using Lamb's Pride Bulky and love the colors. I think I'll only need 1 more skein of each color. This is going to be fantastic when it's finished! I got my winning yarn in the mail earlier this week. My first idea was to make a purse and felt it because the colors are just so gorgeous, but it would be super small so I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use it for. Here's a picture:
On the weight loss front: Yeah.... that's pretty much been nonexistant! I totally fell off the wagon last weekend with the party. I definitely do not have the self-control and will power I would like because I saw that food and just couldn't help myself. In my own defense, I could have eaten much, much worse than I did. Instead of loading up my plate like I used to, I put just a tablespoon of each item. It tasted great but on Sunday I felt just awful! My stomach hurt and I felt so sluggish. What amazes me is that I used to feel that way everyday and never thought anything of it. Now, I can't imagine feeling that way again! I got back OP (on plan) on Monday and am sticking to it hard-core. I'm a little nervous about Sunday because of our bash but I am determined to stay OP. My best friend who is also OP with me will be there and I'm hoping that we can keep each other on track. LoL! Well, I should probably stop here before I finish a book... LoL! Until next time: health, happiness, and blessings!
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