Front landscape: Complete!!

Terry was a hard working man this past weekend.  The front of the house was needing some serious TLC, and Terry was all for it.  A few months back he built the front stone edging from the side of the porch area to the end of the house.  He also planted several shrubs that we picked out at Home Depot to give more character to the curb appeal.  He finally got to the rock quarry and picked out 2 tons of rocks to fill in the ground.  I think it turned out really nice.

The front stone that Terry built and the shrubs that need to grow!

part of front of the house

The truck came and dumped the 2 tons of rock in the driveway.  Working Hard!!

I helped spread out the rocks once he wheelbarrowed them over from the driveway. Dont know if I really helped out though or if I just made more work for him. ;-)

Finished Product (well other than the rake still in the shot)



Next Terry moved into tearing out all of the flowers and foliage and vines and weeds and unnamed stuff in the front tree flowerbed.  Mums would be the perfect low maintenance replacement!

Again, hard at work.  I'll get him smiling at the camera one of these days!

He found GRUBS in the bed.....not good!!  I'd only ever seen drawings of them on the fertilizer and insecticide bags before, so I was a little grossed out by them.  HAD to catch a pic!

I had to leave and run errands before he got them all planted for an "after" picture, but you get the idea.

He still wants to build a planter around the mailbox and the lightpost, so I suppose I shouldn't say the front is "complete", but it's definitely a huge improvement!!

Study Study (CRAM) Study

This is the week of testing for my anatomy and physiology course.  I spent most of the weekend stuffing my brain, and will unfortunately have to continue through the rest of the week.  I had a quiz on Monday (I got a 100%), I have a lab practical at 5pm this evening, and I have a lecture exam on Friday at 10am.  To my own detriment, the lecture exam was supposed to be next Monday, but since we are going out of town, my professor let  me bump up taking it to this Friday. 

Super stressed about the exam today.  Literally just writing this post so that I can try and make my mind stop running 100mph.  Osteocytes, Keratinized Stratified Squamous Epithelium, Cephalad, Sagittal/Frontal/Transverse Planes, PseudoStratified Ciliated Columnar, Reticular Loose Connective Tissue.  It Just Won't Stop!!!!!!

Please be thinking about me and send me good mojo tonight and Friday morning.  I would greatly appreciate it.

UPDATE:  I rocked it!!!!!  She was nice enough to grade it for me when I finished, I got a 66/70!! 
SO HAPPY!!!!!

Football Sunday

In the midst of my crazy studying this weekend, I decided to take a mental break and take Catherine up on an offer to go see the Rams play the Seahawks.  Her plans fell through with someone else, so I swooped in and took full-on advantage of the opportunity to go with her!!

We didn't make it quite in time for kick-off but no big deal.  I have to say, it was an entirely different experience in the stadium on Sunday than it was when Terry, Braga and I went last New Years Game when the Rams played the 49'ers.  The stadium was packed with screaming fans all lovin on some Sam Bradford this year, and it really changed the dynamic of being a fan in St Louis.  The two of us were yelling and screaming right along with them, and Catherine and I are Eagles (whoop!) and Giants (ugh) fans. :-)

Our seats in the endzone

At halftime, we stayed up in the top section, but we moved around to be on the 50 yard line; Upgrade!! We also go free pink Rams hats from Groupon for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Even though I'm really not a hat person, I really like it!!

Close-up when we first got to the stadium and were walking around the first level towards our section. 

The Rams ended up winning 20-3.  Tons of fun!!  It was a great way to break up the day!  Gotta love spontaneity! :-)

Wine Tastings and Steak Night Saturday

It was quite an eventful weekend!  Many things to post through this week. 

Friday night Terry and I went downtown to use a Groupon that was the last day to use before it expired.  We ate at Clark Street Grill in the Westin directly across the street from the Cardinals Stadium.  We had a great meal; French Onion Soup (which we realized neither of us had EVER had before...strange but true) and Calamari for Appetizers, then I had Sea Scallops with Blue Cheese Macaroni and Terry had Chilean Sea Bass with Veggie Pilaf.  We got a bottle of wine to go with dinner since we figured we could splurge a little since the Groupon was for $40.  We got a Chilean Pinot Noir called Cono Sur.  Overall it was a fine wine, it got better as it aerated, and I probably would order it again with pork or just to have with cheeses and crackers, but not one by any means that I'd go raving about.  It was a very pleasant date night.  :-)

Saturday during the day, we (mostly Terry) had a very busy day, but that's for tomorrow's post.  Saturday night however, not only did we have our usual "Saturday Night: Steak Night", but we also threw in a side-by-side wine tasting. Earl and Catherine were both over, but Earl did not partake in anything having to do with wine, ha.  The last trip to Costco, Terry bought three bottles of Kirkland (Costco's generic) brand Cabernet Sauvignon's. One was from Alexander Valley, and the other two were their "Signature Series" Cab's from Stags Leap District and Mountain Cuvee.  After trying all three, we were all torn between the Alexander Valley and the Mountain Cuvee.  The Stags Leap easily took third place for all three of us, not that it was awful, but it just paled in comparison to the other two.  The Alexander Valley I felt had a lot of smooth tannins to it, which I liked, and the Mountain Cuvee was more acidic but it had better flavors with notes of blackberry and bing cherry.  It was interesting seeing how different they tasted when you got to have them side-by-side.  We had a lot of fun.

Before the tasting

Steak night was delicious as usual.  I am SO lucky that my man can cook.  We made steak (obviously), scalloped potatoes, and green beans for dinner.  We also snacked on a platter of cheeses, hummus, and salami rolls with wine beforehand.  Catherine made toffee coffee brownies for dessert, but we were all so stuffed we couldn't eat them (they were great breakfast Saturday morning!!) 

It was a very relaxing Saturday evening.  Great Company, Great Wine, Great Food, and we went to sleep Super Early, which never happens so it was wonderful! 

Wedding Photography Assistant....YES PLEASE!

I have been itching to write this post, but I wanted to wait until there were some incredible pictures to go along with it.  Jordan (from here and here) was hired to be a wedding photographer for a couple she knew from JMU who were having their ceremony in Hermann, MO.  Hermann is a little under 2 hours west of St. Louis, so she came and stayed the night at our place Friday night.  We had joked around a bit leading up to the wedding about me being her assistant, but then she asked me if I really wanted to be her side-kick for the day to help her out and we could have some fun together to boot.  I was totally in!!
The whole day on Saturday was nothing short of amazing.  The bride, Jessi, was breath-taking, the location was set on top of a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, and the quaint ceremony was held outdoors under a gazebo mid-afternoon.  Without any further ado, here are just a few moments from the day.

 

 

 

  

In total, over 3,000 pictures were taken between the two of us. We left the house at noon and arrived back at the house just after midnight.  The two of us had a blast, constantly showing each other incredible little pieces of the day that we caught just right.  I had never really thought about it before, but a wedding photographers job is super stressful and incredibly exhausting.  Jo said that the next day I wasn't even going to want to move bc I was going to be so spent and I just laughed, and then I laughed again the following day when I was unable to get off the couch. 

Of all my body parts that hurt the most though, it was my cheeks that were most sore.  When you spend a day with Jordan, really all that you do is laugh and smile.  The big cheesy, outloud laughing smiles.  The best kind.  So much fun, and such great memories. She's so insanely talented at her craft (check her work out at http://www.jordanquinnphoto.com/), and I'm so lucky she let me be her side-kick for the day and let me learn from all her knowledge.  I'm so lucky I've got her in my life.