My gal, Megan

This weekend was so much fun!  I got to hang out with former student and good friend Megan.  She came for a visit this weekend.  We shopped, walked around Boston, Watched Elf, played games, and just had a good time!

Yesterday we went on a harbor boat ride all around Boston.  This was a great find, and a lot of fun!

Here she is, doesn't she look like a movie star?? 

We also did the very touristy thing of waiting in line at Regina's for what is widely known as being the BEST pizza!  I am a New Yorker by birth, but my favorite pizza vote goes here! 

This was the line at 2:30pm.  Not lunch, not dinner...

After waiting about 20 minutes we got tired of standing! 

We were going to take a picture before we dug in, but forgot.  It was so delicious looking and smelling a picture totally slipped our minds!

We finished the day yesterday with Bananagrams and cannolis.  What a great day!

Megan is going to kill me for this one!

Just another (birth)day!

So another year has come an gone.  Birthdays don't feel the same as they used to.  I used to get so excited for my birthdays because in our family they were a BIG deal.  My parents still make a big deal about our birthdays, and everyone in my life made this a special day.  A while back I decided that I should do something for my parents on my birthday.  After all they did all the work raising me!  I send them cake and flowers every year along with a thank you for all they do.  It means so much to me to let them know how much I love and appreciate them-and what better day than the day I was brought to their family?!

Nic also worked hard to make this day special.  We typically do a lot for each other's birthdays.  I awoke to a new MacBook from him  (I am currently using it to post this blog entry).  I have been wanting a MacBook for a long time now, and he was so sweet to get it for me.  He also took me out for a great dinner, and got me plane tickets to go see my BFFs in VA in two weeks.  He's so thoughtful!

When I got to school, the lovely ladies I work with greeted me with breakfast and some beautiful flowers.

We went out to celebrate with some friends last Saturday-but not before a grueling road race for me.

I love that my number was 499.  It's our house number :)

I ran a 6.66 mile race in honor of Halloween on Saturday, but it was a horrible run.  I hit the week where I hit the wall.  It was a lousy run, but I felt so much better after talking to Lindsay about it (thanks Linds).  I tweaked some parts of my run and have since had the best runs that I've ever experienced.

We tried a great new restaurant Saturday night with our buds.  The menu was so good, I could not decide what to have.  I have since went to their site written down each meal that tempted me and made them all this week for our dinners!  YUM :)  Here is a picture of Chicken with cranberry cherry chutney, served with smoked collard greens.

The food was great, and then we enjoyed a scorpion bowl at the Kong.  The Kong is a three floor restaurant, lounge and club.  In that order as you go up floors.  My scorpion bowl was missing a few things though...no plastic toys :)

Nic, Nick, Sally, Adrienne, Chris, and I enjoyed this large, strong drink.  Missing Marissa, Julie, and Jen.

All and all this was a pretty spectacular birthday!  Thanks to all of you for your calls, texts, FB messages, cards, presents, flowers, etc.  I definitely felt the love!

Countdowns!

I felt like it was important to update my most important count downs.  I am the type of person who needs something to look forward to, or it's hard to get through the week/month.

199 Days until the Wedding...Cheers to being under 200!

192 Until the Wedding Vacation begins!

148 School Days until Summer!

About 75 Days until two of my favorite girls have their little babies!  What an exciting time for them :)

68 Days until my Half Marathon at Disney!- twice in one mothn to Disney!

56 Days until Disney with my Family

53 Days until a fun filled Christmas visit to Michigan!

30 Days until Thanksgiving with my family and future in-laws.

25 days until I head to VA to see my best friends- God I miss them!

10 days until I turn 31.  Wow. crazy!

I love having something to countdown!!

Charming Charms

MLH is a source of unmatched inspiration.  At her wedding, the bridesmaids pulled charms from her cake and were greeted by a (frosting covered) wish from the bride.  After two years -Happy Anniversary MCH and MLH BTW-I still have my four leaf clover charm on my jewelry mat on my dresser.

 The custom of "Ribbon Pulling" charms of luck and good fortune dates back to the Victorian England when the bride hid small charms attached to ribbons within the layers of her wedding cake. The tradition has made a "charming" comeback and is a very sweet Charming gesture.  I love the idea so we're doing it!

While out and about yesterday I picked these up:

and came home to attach the coral blush ribbon.

Now I just need to figure out how to get them under the cake.  MLH-I'm looking to you to help :)

When it rains...

To say that the last few weeks have been bad is a huge understatement.  It seems that everything in our little world that could go wrong has.  Car trouble, leaking bathroom in our VA townhouse, torn ligaments and hospital visit for Nic's hand, and oh could I go on....

I've been a little down in the dumps lately, mostly dwelling on all these yucky things that have plagued us over the last few weeks, but also missing friends and family that I don't get to see.  But now I'm done being blue.  My favorite principal ever, Angie always says "Choose your attitude"  and that's what I am going to do.  Time to look at the bright side, and choose to improve my attitude.

Amazing what a little conversation with MLH can do for my mood to help me see the bright sides.

Bright sides:

It's fall, and that can only mean one thing in my mind PUMPKINS!  If you know me, you know I love them.  They're cute to look at and tasty to eat.  Yes, I've already made a few batches of my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and brought them to boot camp to share.
I've also enjoyed (more than my fair share of) Pumpkin Beer.  Oh my are they good!  Here's a picture so you know what I'm talking about...

see that suraged rim.  It tastes even better than it looks!


College football games are also a bright spot for me.  If you notice behind the pumpkin beer is a U of M jersey.  That's our friend Nick Chang.  Nic and Nick went to U of M together, and love to cheer on their Alma mater together.  We head to the Michigan bar pretty regularly to take in games, drink and eat tasty bar treats, and hang out with friends.

I'm up to running 7 miles at a time.  that's huge for me.  I don't love it to be honest, but it's a necessary evil so that I can fit into a sleek wedding dress.  I am running two half marathons between now and the wedding to make sure I don't look like a wedding cake in that dress!

One last bright side: We are less than 7 months away from being the newest Hunter family!  I can't wait for the week of wedding festivities starting May 5th!

Livin' the Dream!

 Yesterday, I lived the dream!  I didn't go to school yesterday, but rather spent the day doing things I needed to do.  I took a sick day because of a strep throat, but other than that I felt well enough to have my own little adventure.

In the morning I drove to Maine to go to the Kittery Outlets.  The Crate and Barrel there had some great buys, so I got centerpieces, and turquoise tea light holders.


This lantern will be the centerpiece filled with sand and starfish.  Cute huh?

I ran to Ann Taylor Loft and got some new school clothes.  It was so nice to get some really great deals, and to spend the morning doing somethings for me. 

On the way home I made a stop at Kelly's Famous Roast Beef for a...wait for it...LOBSTER ROLL!  My favorite meal is a Lobster Roll!  I love 'em, can't get enough of 'em!

Look at all that lobster meat!!

Upon arrive back in Boston, I picked up Nic from the Prudential Building where he was visiting a firm and we went home.  I left again to get my hair cut and then dropped Nic's car off for service at the Acura delaership  (Not a part of living the dream). 

I was in a bit of a hurry as we had a nice dinner to get to.  I got all dressed up in a new pretty ATL dress, heels, full make up, new hair do, and off we went to the new Legal Seafood 2nd floor.  The food was out of this world.  This is not your average Legal Seafood, it's not even the same menu. 

As you can see it looks a little different than the normal Legal Seafood!

I enjoyed Oysters from the raw bar, then a mussle appetizer served on a crustini with a delish tomato/red peper sauce.  My main course was, can you guess?  LOBSTER again.  I had the most delectible butter paoched lobster served with a lobster ginger butter sauce with mussles and churrizo.  We enjoyed our dinner so much, then hopped in a cab and went home to our sweet baby doggy who smiles at us when she's excited.

Maizey is NOT scary, she's smliing.  Our dog smiles, and this is the first I've caught on camera.  It looks pretty bad, but she is just so happy to see us that she's smiling.

So while my day was packed, it was a great day.  I really felt like I was Living the Dream.  I feel like I could use one day like that a month.  Is that why teachers get enough sick days to cover one "sick day" per month...hmmm!

Cake Class

As promised....

Cake Class has begun.  Nicole and I are two classes in, and have already crafted lovely cakes with a cute fish on them.

My Cake is on the left, Nicole's is on the right. 

Ready to decorate

Base or Crumb coat done! 

Nicole working hard.  She did her cake in her wedding colors.  The picture does it no justice.

Nicole and me, thrilled with the way our first cakes turned out!

My fishie.  It looks way better in person.  Well it did, until we ate it :)

In an effort to NOT eat the entire cake myself, (especially since I know how the frosting was made), I brought the cake down to Eileen's.  The kids dug in.  Connor told me my cake was "Perfect."  I'll go down there any time to have my ego fed.  They're so excited that next week is cupcake week.

ZZZZZZing

I've heard over and over that weddings can bring out the worst in people.  I have learned this tthrough personal experience in the last month.  I was ZZZZZinged by someone who I thought things were cool with.  Apparently, things weren't cool like chill, fine, no problem, they were cool like Cold, Icy, BIG problem. 

Upon receiving said ZZZing via email, I quickly responded in an off the cuff email back.  I did not however hit send.  In the past I probably would have.  For sure...actually. 

Over the last year I've come to a realization-you never know what someone is going through, so you should always be kinder than necessary.  I don't mean that people have a license to walk all over me, but I mean that I will respond in a positive way.  If I can't then I will not respond.  Either way, I've been nicer than necessary.  There have been situations that came up at school or in my personal life where someone was less than friendly.  Instead of getting upset or ZZZZinging back, I've worked to be kind.  It's not easy.  Let me tell you.  I'm half Italian-we wear our feelings on our faces.

I hope the situation that arose will be the only one involving our wedding that fits the saying "Weddings bring out the worst in people."  But if it's not-I'll try to be kinder than necessary.

Save the Dates...Part 2

I did it!  I mailed them!  They're going out today.  I'm so excited to have that part done.  I posted a few pics of the process I used to get them together, now I can post the finished product.

The pictures really do them no Justice, but here they are:

Now it's on the figuring out what the invitations will look like!

Dress shopping

I did my first little bit of dress shopping, which made me self conscious and feel that I should be running two times a day.  Yikes!

About two weeks ago I said something to Nic about wanting a cute shorter dress from WHBM for the wedding.  He was appalled and preceded to describe the dress he thought I should wear.  He clearly sees me differently than I see myself since he described a sleek trumpet style gown.

The girl Nics accompanied me to Priscilla of Boston to tryout these dresses my Nic was describing.   I tried on a bunch, and had a few laughs, took some pics, but mostly I learned that I can NOT pull off the Trumpet style.  At least not yet ;)

Whenever I'm with the girl Nics we have an adventure.  Sometimes it's to the mall in a snowstorm, getting ID'ed for the movies, Michael's to collect items for our cake class (More on that later), getting traffic warnings in Waltham, Bunco nights, Margarita's for you guessed it...Margaritas, or any host of other things.  This time it was sneaking out of the bridal salon.

Let me back up...

Priscilla of Boston is going out of business and liquidating their gowns.  I thought I should go and look-maybe it would prove to be worth the while.

I called the salon and they said no appointments, just come in.  Cool I thought... 

It was raining pretty good on Tuesday.  We decided around 3pm that we'd leave school to go try on dresses.  We bolted out of school piled in my car, drove into the city, and found a parking spot on the very trendy Newbury Street.  Walked quickly to the salon heads down trying not to get soaked. And then we arrived to...

NO service.  The salon had apparently taken going out of business to the next level- Open, but no sales people to help you find your perfect dress.  The Nics ran around the salon grabbing dress after dress for me to try.  The two of them got quite a show as they got me in and out of dresses.  The three of us had lots of laughs and a great time on our own in the changing room.  We were checked on two times by an uninterested sales woman.  As they pulled me out of the last gown, the woman came in and told us there was a fee to try on gowns.  Huh?  A fee you say?  You MUST be kidding!
I looked at the Nics and said let's go, I am not paying a fee to try on a gown, especially when the lady didn't even help us.  No way.  They should be working for my business, there is now way I'm even entertaining a gown from here now.  Had they mentioned that on the phone, we wouldn't even have come in!

We quickly walked to the elevator boarded, and repeatedly pressed the close button.  It was just like on TV, as the lady walked up to stop us, the doors closed and we were off.  Nicole had butterflies because she made eye contact with the lady as we bolted, but Nikki and I just laughed.
We made it back to the car quickly and without being chased or getting too wet.  I was afraid of bad karma after that, so I passed along my parking pass that was good for another 1.5 hrs to the car pulling into my spot.  Had to get some good juju out there to make up for my ducking out!

Oh September, you're back

This summer was great!  We spent the majority of it in Virginia, with a few visits here and there.  We made it to NY for my Dad's retirement party, and Maizey and I went to Martha's Vineyard to visit Eileen, Rosemary and Beau.  Needless to say, I am not ready for school to start.  I could use a few more weeks of doing domestic and wedding things before working work back into the mix.

I have a new job this year.  I will be working in 4 different elementary schools in Belmont as a curriculum specialist in math and science.  I'm looking forward to this, but will miss the Chenery gang immensely.
The teachers go back Tuesday, followed by the kids  Wednesday.  180 weekdays days from Wednesday, will be summer again.  Yay! Even though school doesn't start for 2 more days.... Let the countdown to summer begin!  

There are a few other countdowns going on in my world as well.
 The count down until May 3rd is a biggie.  The last day of school for me before I leave for my wedding.  Can't wait for that one in 243 days!  And of course the sound down to May 10th- wedding day! 250 Days:)

Half Marathon count down is 126 days away.  There are a lot of looooong runs in my near future.  Good thing I have the best running buddy in the world.  Love that Maizey Blue!

Two of my favorite gals are pregnant and due within a week of each other in January.   Their count down is somewhere around 130.  Lucky girls will get to stay home from school with their new bundles for a little while after that too.

So, yes, while you are back September, I won't curse you too much because you've brought Michigan Football back, and you'll be gone soon.

Save the Dates

I really don't think of myself as crafty.  I have a good friend NH who can make anything with paper.  She made her own save the dates, and is a whiz on a Cricut.  She was kind of my inspiration when it came to giving this a go on my own.

During the last few weeks, I've been printing, cutting, folding, and measuring to get the dimensions just right.  I made a template, and now have folded 60 card stock folders with pockets to be stuffed with info for our guests.


All the tools ant templates ready to start cutting and folding:

Making the pocket for information about the wedding

 Folded with a pocket

All ready to be stuffed and mailed.  

It was so much easier than I thought it would be, and very rewarding.  As soon as I get these out I'll start on the invitations.

Who Invited Irene anyway?

Irene will not be a guest at our wedding!  And neither will any of her brothers and sisters.  It's one of the reasons we've picked May over August in OBX.  No Hurricanes!

I can't remember a time when I was so effected by a hurricane.  Irene is apparently going to slam right into us sometime Saturday evening.  I went shopping for some essentials for Nic, our neighbor Eileen, and I today just in case.  I must state the obvious and say that I am not looking forward to this.  I am also not looking forward to seeing and hearing about any damage done to the Outer Banks by this monster of a storm. Irene is effecting my home in Boston, and my wedding 15 hours south in NC.

We love The Outer Banks so much that we're getting married there even though it's not the most convenient place for anyone (us especially since we HAVE to drive).  We love the long stretches of open beach, the salty sea air, the houses on stilts, the cute little towns along route 12.  We love that we can rent a house on the Pamlico Sound, and yet walk to the ocean beach clear across the island and up a dune in 15 minutes.  But the point that we can do that means that it's one narrow Island that will hopefully still be there after this storm is finished.

I got an email from our photographer today that she'd love to take our deposit and set our contract, but she's been evacuated so no dice!  Same with the caterer.  It's crazy.  Let's hope the home we've picked is not damaged in the storm, and that all of our vendors luck out with no damage as well.  Heck let's hope that Irene leave OBX with minimal damage all together.  Fingers and toes crossed. 

I'm going to hunker down in Boston with my candles, flashlight, radio, canned food, Nic and Maizey, and finish assembling the pocket cards for our save the dates.  My goal is to have them out next week.  So maybe a day inside is exactly what I need to do it!

Getting in shape for my wedding, with a worthy cause

I have had a goal now for 2 years that I have not accomplished.  I'd like to run a marathon.  For those of you who know me, you know I run, sometimes.  My Dr. told me I shouldn't do a whole marathon for reasons I won't go into here, but he said a half marathon would be fine.

So I'm doing one.  January 7th, 2012 in Disney!!!  Yay!


This is a great way to get in shape for my wedding, but it's about way more than that. 


I know families that have lost loved ones to blood cancers.  Team in Training helps to raise money for treatment and cures for Leukemia, and Lymphoma.  I'm running for them. About 10 years ago someone I worked with at Wegmans lost her 2 year old daughter to Leukemia.  It was tragic.  It was my first time being personally impacted by this cancer.  Just a few years ago some friends of our family lost their dad to Leukemia.  When I decided to run a half marathon, I could think of no better way to do it.

So I'll benefit by getting in shape for my big day, and I'll contribute to supporting a worthy cause.  Win win :)

I just built my page, it's nothing special but visit it, and support me if you can!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/wdw12/kcontario#My-Fundraising-Page

Katie
XOXO

Happily Overwhelmed...mostly

Talk about a whirlwind!  Once the planning started it was game on.  It's all I do.  My DVR is full because I have spent all of my time wedding planning, that I don't leave the office.  Nic informed me today I was taking over his space.  Yes, "His Space."  Our apartment is the size of our kitchen and living room in VA.  There is no my space/your space.  But I do understand what he means, because my mind is so consumed with wedding.

I've made save the dates, with pockets and magnets this week, begun the invitations, table numbers and all things stationary.  I'm doing it myself so it will be a while before they get mailed.  I do feel very accomplished though!  I have all but put deposits down with a DJ, Caterer for the rehearsal and reception, rental equipment, and Beach family photos for the day after the wedding.  I'm in a good spot finally.


Keep plugging along....

XOXO
Katie

IT'S WEDDING PLANNING TIME!

Consider this to be my first wedding planning post.  I had ideas, and now they're becoming reality.  The last week has been filled with choosing houses only to find out they're booked when I call.  Not anymore.  We booked our Wedding House!

Here's the link if you'd like a closer look:
http://www.carolinadesigns.com/vacation-rentals/ohana-mau-loa.aspx

I also made a great craigslist find.  A woman had a bedroom full (literally) of Aqua blue and Coral wedding accessories.  Check this out:

 I got these Nantucket Baskets all made up with shells, starfish and ribbon

 Some more baskets and skeins of ribbon all ready to be put to good use.

 17 pew bows.  I don't need 17, but I have them to put on door knobs and to decorate the house with!

This tray and sand will house the escort cards that will actually look like this...

This will be on the way from the house to the beach, I'm taking my shoes off!

These tumblers are Mexican blown glass with Starfish on them.  I got 30 to scatter around the wedding house.

This is everything I got all nicely packaged they way the proud mother of the bride had it.  She was so nice, and gave me one heck of a deal!

I also called the Hampton Inn in Corolla to block off rooms , but they don't do that.  What they will do is take our wedding info and will offer our guest 10% off of their room when they reference our wedding; which reminds me I have to finish that paperwork so guests can start calling!

Shrimp and Grits

While in the Outer Banks, Nic, his family, and I went to Mack Daddy's in Avon.  We'd avoided this place in the past because of tales of long lines, poor service, and overpriced menu items.  I am not sure what made us go there that night, but boy am I glad we did.  The line was short, the service great, and the food was awesome!

Nic has told me that I can pick his food out anywhere because he always likes what I pick.  This time, he was the winner.  Linds, Vince and I all got the same meal.  Fresh caught tuna seared rare with some sort of starch.  It was very good, but obviously not as memorable as Nic's since I've forgotten the rest.  Tina and Rick both got delicious shrimp dishes that was very well prepared, but Nic got shrimp and grits. 

I've had shrimp and grits, and I've made shrimp and grits.  They've all been forgettable until Mack Daddy's.  These were unbelievable, and I've been thinking about them since.  Being prompted by Nic's recent inquiry as to weather or not I've forgotten how to cook, I decided I was going to give these a try.

I made them today, and they were fantastic.  The secret ingredient....coffee in the sauce.  OMG, they are good!

 I started by making grits, and adding cheddar cheese.  I let them sit for 30ish minutes to firm up.

After frying some bacon I got my mise en place together so I could work quickly with a sauce I thought for sure would break.

 A quick roux with bacon fat and flour mixed with shallot, garlic, salt and pepper, wine, a dash of french vanilla brewed D&D coffee, and finally heavy cream.  Paula Dean would be proud!

The shrimp are the real star of this dish, but the bacon doesn't hurt!

Tossed the shrimp and sauce together with tomato concasse and bacon and served it over the grits that I cut into squares and pan fried.  Yum-O!

Mack Daddy's yours are still be best I've had, but I am going to tweak my recipe until it tastes just like yours!

I gauge all meals by asking Nic a simple question:  Is this a make again, or a Fugetaboutit ?  This was a make again!

June, July, and August...phew...

After over a month of being in Virginia, we've arrived home to Massachusetts.  It was swelteringly (is that even a word) hot, but was filled with fun times with family and friends.  Nic enjoyed his firm, and I enjoyed walking to Georgetown Cupcake more than I care to admit.  We're settle back in, and have fallen back into normal life.

Nic made law review.  This was big news, and makes me very proud.  He's so busy now, but that might free me up to get some wedding things done.  It has today.  He had been asking a lot of questions, and wanting me to make spreadsheets of expenditures for the wedding, but I think he's now to busy to care.  I've agreed to stay within the budget, and he's agreed to let me plan.

I did a lot today, and will be booking a place this week.  Save the dates to follow shortly, along with some details!

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas!

So it's true, no date has been set.  It's still up in the air, but what is not up in the air is the theme in my mind.  I want a laid back beach wedding where everyone can kick their heals up and have some fun.  I see ideas everywhere to make this a reality.  Many of the ideas I have are things I'd  like to copy from other weddings (friends and from the knot).  I am trying to keep in mind that this is the beginning of the planning, and I shouldn't get overwhelmed with things I'd like for the reception/party.  It's just so hard since that seems like the fun stuff!  I feel like I need to sort what I know and what I'd like to keep in mind so I don't forget any of the great ideas I've seen when it gets close enough to actually plan them.  I still am in the mode of feeling ALL OVER THE PLACE!  Will the ever come together and be the beautiful wedding I have in my mind?  I guess it won't until I really get planning.  I really just want to get to the fun part of planning, instead of the boring stuff like picking the actual date ;)

Here's what I know so far:
1.  This time, I am marrying the RIGHT man.  Period.
2. I have the most incredible friends and -and they'll have a huge role in the whole wedding.

3.  We have wonderful families that love and support us. They will of course have a huge part in the whole wedding.  Our siblings will stand up for us, and our parents will be guests of honor.
4.  We'll tie the knot on the sand in the Outer Banks-God willing
and that's where it ends.  I have so many ideas, but I want to make sure that I have the important details like a date and a venue in place before I let myself go wild.

Ideas I have so far for the FUN STUFF:
I loved MLH's Picture frames that helped to serve as escort card finders.

I also loved her Water bottles, and signature drink as well.  Great ideas!!

 We'd like to do a "Candy Bar" stolen from EEH

I would like a beach themed cake that looks something like this:

In addition to the Candy bar and cake, I want to do a sugar cookie tree like EEH.  I am Italian, and there are traditionally Italian cookies at weddings.  I think I'd like to change it up and do sugar cookies like JLM's famous ones.  I like these, and would attach them to a Styrofoam cone to look like a tree.  Can you tell all I care about is desert?  I haven't even thought about catering yet...hmmm...

I'd like to do my own, simple floral arrangements  for the gals and me by ordering through Costco to cut costs.  I'd like to incorporate starfish into the flowers, boutonnieres, seating cards, centerpieces, and invitations.  Among other things.

Speaking of the gals- sun dresses, not BM dresses that can't ever be used again.  A nice Navy sundress.
Oh yeah, and Navy will be the main color.  I am thinking of accenting with either Yellow (Not too muted, but not too bright) or Hot Pink.

And last but not least I look at MLH's thank you note everyday because it's on my fridge right in the front.  Its a beautiful pic of her and her cute hubby holding a "Thank you" sign.  I want to copy that too.

As you can see, I need to focus.  It will come.  I am seriously considering bumping this shin-dig to either June or August of 2012.  That way it will be summer for all the teachers out there who have to worry about standardized testing in May.  I can't believe I'm planning my wedding around an SOL ;)