Much Awaited Post and the Maid of Honor Toast

So much to post about and what to start with?  Since the reason I haven't posted for a week was my sister's wedding, the crazy amounts of family visiting and the fact that I was the Maid of Honor, I'll start with something wedding related.

Getting ready for the big day...it took all day!

 We made the bouquets ourselves. Crazy!

Here was my toast.  I ended up not having very much time to go over it on the big day, because I spent most of the time worried about the bride but I ended up saying it exactly how I wanted.  People laughed when I wanted them too, I even made some good improvised comments and I felt like I really got the emotions I was feeling across.  It was such a great day, but it went by way too fast!   I'm so happy for my sister, she looked incredibly happy on her big day.


Maid of Honor Toast:

"When I sat down to right this speech, I thought to myself, “damn I should’ve sat down sooner.”  But in all seriousness when I started to write it turned out to be pretty easy for me to talk about how much I love Jennifer and now Andy.

           

Jennifer has always played such a special and unique role in my life.  For those of you who don’t know me I am Jen’s younger half sister by 8 years.  We didn’t grow up together but that didn’t stop her from being one of my favorite people in the whole world.  From when I was little, and I cried every summer, all the way home from the airport after dropping her off, to looking forward to our special sister trips, to going to her for advice about pretty much everything…she’s always been someone I’ve looked up to, trusted, and loved.  I was so excited to be her Maid of Honor because I felt like I finally got a chance to give back to her for all that she’s done for me over the years.  I don’t know what I did to get so lucky, but for sisters, Jen you truly are a blessing, a role model, a best friend.

When people asked me how I felt about the wedding, I could honestly tell them that I was extremely excited.  I was excited to see my sister finally have her special day.  I was excited to welcome Andy into my family, I was excited for the promised open bar.  But most of all I was excited to see my sister so absolutely happy.

            Now I understand a lot of you haven’t gotten the pleasure of getting to know Andy and Jen as a couple and I think it can best be summed up by this quote I pretty much found last night on the internet, “Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.”  Jen and Andy are the best kind of couple, they are best friends before anything else.  So here’s to my best friend, who is marrying one of hers.  I wish my sister and her new husband all the love, health, and happiness life has to offer.  Cheers."

It's a blurrrr

Here's a little glimpse into the Vegas weekend, some of girls getting ready with the Bachelorette in the middle.

 

With the bachelorette, the wedding, and Halloween the days are flying by.  Today we have family flying in all the way from New Jersey.  I'm so excited because on Monday we get to take my 3 little nieces to Disneyland!!! I love Disneyland, I can't wait to instagram the whole day and post about it here.  Anyway, my week just feels like a blur, I can't wait for the wedding and will be glad to have things calm down once its over.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Because He Loves Me

Alright for a minute, I'm going to be like one of those weird cat ladies who never had kids and treat their pets like their children and talk about how great my dog is.

He is always by my side.
He never cancels his plans with me.
He is always home when I come home.

Okay maybe this post is really more about my frustration with a friend who cancelled plans today, but still animals are great.

Feel Good Fridays

It'll be years later when I look back on this simple moment, when the boy at the register tells me I have pretty eyes and I proceed to enjoy my free time reading and sipping hot coffee---that I'll ask myself, why didn't I realize how lucky I was in that moment.  And then my much older self will ask my then self the same question and the cycle will continue.


I dedicate today's post to being mindful.  Mindfulness is such a good way to decrease stress and add to your happiness.  Being mindful to me means being aware of what you're doing, where you are, who you're with when it is actually happening.  Its appreciating the great moments when you're actually living them instead of merely looking back at them.

For a brief history of Feel Good Fridays, click here.

The Wisdom of Justin Bieber?

Is it weird that I used a Justin Bieber song to make a major life decision?  Yes, yes it is probably really weird.

"Ask me what's my best side, I stand back and point at you

You, you the one that I argue with, I feel like I need a new girl to be bothered with,

But the grass ain't always greener on the other side,

It's green where you water it

So I know we got issues baby true, true, true,

But I'd rather work on this with you

Than to go ahead and start with someone new"

I've been going back and forth about my long distance relationship, and whether its really worth it.  And after seeing him for the last few days, this song came on on the radio and it really made me realize.  Whether he is "the one" or not, I'll regret not putting my all into something that has a large chance of being the real thing.  And, if he turns out not to be the right guy for me, its good practice for when the right one does come along, its the effort you put into relationships that keep them going.

So while I hope to make more of my life decisions on my own, thank you Justin Bieber and more specifically Big Sean for helping me along.

The Bridal Shower

Homemade Cupcakes

We made the centerpieces with spaghetti jars, burlap and ribbon

 

 The Bride and me

The three sisters

More pictures and details to come...

Feel Good Fridays

 Photo cred.

For a brief explanation of Feel Good Fridays click here.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. explains in her model of happiness that "studies show that 50% of individual differences in happiness are determined by genes, 10% by life circumstances, and 40% by our intentional activities."

This is groundbreaking work to think about.  Only 10% of happiness is decided by life circumstances.  That means whether you're wealthy or poor, fat or skinny, pretty or ugly, you have a college degree or you never graduated high school...those circumstances only affect your happiness by 10%!  40% is affected by our intentional activities.  That to me screams that we are in control of how happy we feel.  We don't need all these self help books and exercise programs to make us happy, we just need to train our minds a little bit.

I hope this affects you as much as it does for me, have a great weekend everyone! 

Lovely Monday

Hi everyone!  How was your prospective Mondays?  I spent mine out and about preparing and planning for the Bridal Shower I'm throwing my sister this weekend.  Don't worry I'll be sure to post about everything I did this week and next.

Last week I had a mini-reunion with my college roommates.  Seeing and being with them is like being with family.  I would be 10 times happier if I could live with at least one of them again, hopefully that will happen this year. 

Anyway, we went shopping on Melrose and then to dinner at Lala's Argentian restaturant, also on Melrose.  I felt like a total LA local.  I love a lot about LA but I'm way happier to visit then actually live there.

::pumpkin spice latte, how I love thee//Melrose inspiration//shopping//good food with great company, is there anything better?::