My Husband...

...REALLY is watching TV!!! Today in the STL, it was a yucky, rainy day so I came home from work and made chili!!! It was delicious and we have lots of leftovers. Usually, Matt is the one that cooks in our relationship but I've been the chef this week and I think I've done a pretty good job if I do say so myself. Tilapia on Tuesday night, turkey ham on Wednesday night and chili tonight! The best part was dessert (which I didn't eat because I'm still trying to fit in my wedding dress)...

I bought some bananas last week and, of course, we couldn't eat them fast enough (that drives me crazy about bananas-they brown so fast) so I made three loaves of banana bread with mini chocolate chips and almonds!!! OMG!!! The house smells so yummy!!! Once Matt's show is over, we're taking a loaf over to his parents then going to buy a gift for our friends' 4-year old son whose birthday party is this Sunday~I'm excited to go to the party because he is such a cutie!!!

Happy almost weekend!

They like me...

...they really like me! Today was two of my employees last day before they leave for college. Imagine my surprise when they come walking into the office a little before 9am this morning with a dozen pink roses and a gift bag!!! I was like what is all this!?! They said it was a going-away/happy wedding present. I loved the roses...they are absolutely gorgeous!!! Then they made a calendar for me with all the kids from work and each month the kids were holding different props! They also got me a gift card and the sweetest notes! It was the nicest thing ever!!! They are both great employees and I'm going to miss them!!!

Rub dub dub...

...so many showers this weekend! I had two of my showers and then my friend Ashley had her baby shower! I have officially lost 12 pounds so I'm going to try on the dress this upcoming Friday(and take four hours vacay-yah!!!-half day of work!) but after this weekend, I feel like I gained it all back! However, after three showers, I only had ONE piece of cake and a few cream puffs which I left the leftovers at my dad's so I wouldn't eat the rest!

My shower on Saturday was held at the Osage Center where I used to be employed and was Employee of the Month in July 2003!!! PROOF:

My sister, grandma and Sally threw the shower. I love this picture and if you know us at all this totally shows how opposites we are:

We all took a million and one pictures BUT since most of you are my friends on Facebook and can see all the pics, I am only posting one because I feel like I look really skinny-I think its because I held my arms away from my body (thanks for the tip Mrs. KLF):

OH! and I got to touch her belly even though she hates it...come on Ash-we've been friends since KINDERGARTEN!!!

We got a Magic Bullet (I was so freakin' excited) and here's a pic of the "trial run" in Matt's words:

My second shower was this afternoon at Zion Church and was given by Matt's sister and his aunts. They did a great job! I have a ton of pictures from it but they are all of me opening presents but here's a pic of the cake:

For more pics of mine or Ashley's showers or to see what the food looked like then check out Kristal's blog.

Now on a sadder note (and I really don't want to end on a sad note but we need prayers), we just found out that our 4 year old black lab that we got in January has heartworms last Thursday. We take him in tomorrow and Tuesday for his treatment then he has to be on strict bedrest for 30 days. I never really knew much about heartworms until last Thursday and its really kind of scary because even if your dog is on preventative, its like birth control and only 99.9% effective so read up and save your dog!!!

Also, please take a look at our beautiful Shadow and say your prayers for him...he's a part of our family and we love him so much!!!

You can call me Betty...

...Crocker that is! (Thanks Kristal for that line!). So Matt's mom gave us TWO GIGANTIC zucchinis from her garden. They are about 4 inches in diameter. This picture doesn't do it justice.Matt was going to fry some for dinner but I knew there would be leftovers. So I got on the trusty Internet and searched zucchini recipes. I found some that looked delicious but not so healthy. Then I checked out one for zucchini bread (I know not healthy but I can give it away easier than a casserole). I had all the ingredients except walnuts from when I was on a breadmaking spree when I got friendship bread and couldn't get rid of all the starter bags-wow that was interesting! So I made the batter and popped it in the oven:

It will come out in about 40 minutes and then I will post the picture of the final product! Matt tasted the batter and thought it was delicious! So I'm excited for him to finally taste it. Almost anything else I make, I mess up because I get distracted and walk away from the stove but after all my experience with the friendship bread, I'm pretty sure this will turn out and Matt will love it!

Ta-da! The bread turned out great! One fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan but Matt didn't care...half is gone already! I'm going to take the other loaf over to Matt's parents since it was their zucchini. As you can see...we still have one left and Matt's asked me to make more bread this week! You can also see Mattie's fried zucchini there. We had a few pieces tonight and we're going to eat the rest with spaghetti for dinner tomorrow night! I love when we're domestic!

Sunday afternoon...

...and I'm stuck inside. Random things keep popping into my head....1. Brandy's song "Sittin' Up in my Room" 2. Sitting in my grandma's room watching movies she always had for us

See...aren't they random? So the wedding workout...its going...I'm sticking to the food situation very well, the walking well, I went every day last week except two, but here's the deal it's been in the 90's this week which makes if very hard to do. I am just wishing and praying that I can lose the 10 pounds to get into that dress. The seamstress called and she can only let it out ONE INCH!!! I'm really starting to stress about this...I'm so ready to be Mrs. Groeteke and done with this wedding. I thought people were supposed to look forward to the wedding, everyone else is except me because I'm the only one under the pressure. Matthew doesn't have a thing to worry about...he bought the ring and is done with his part. Everyone else's dresses fit perfect...I'm stuck trying to make everything fall into place and have a flippin' dress fit! I wish Matthew had just listened to me when I said let's go away and get married!!! Grrr...here's to minus ten pounds!

Wedding Workout...

...okay, so I totally HAVE to lose like 10 pounds before the middle of September so that I can HOPEFULLY not have to pay a million dollars to alter a dress that I KNOW fits. So here's my Wedding Workout...watch what I eat...all water, no beer, no snacks or sweets...just stuff from the ground. THEN the workout part...I'm going to alternate walking each dog every day to the post office which is about a mile away and mail one invitation a day! Doesn't that sound like fun? I have two showers in August so I can walk to the post office to mail the thank you notes. So that's my exciting Wedding Workout...wish me luck!

Floatin'....

....to the right, floatin' to the left! So Matt and I just got home from our annual float trip with the gang from KC. As always it was one CRAZY weekend. So Matt and I are trying to leave on Friday night when we get about 20 minutes down the road and his truck starts acting up so we had to go home and trade out cars. We finally get down there and are about 5 miles from the turnoff when this black animal runs in front of us...I swear it was a cat but Matt said it was a mink (I think he was just trying to make me feel better). So I made him pull over cause I'm freakin' out so that I could call my dad...I just had this feeling something bad was going to happen. So I talk to him and feel a little better, we go on to the campsite and pull up. Nicole comes over to say hi to us and her husband, Jason, is talking to this group of girls that snuck into the side of the campsite, where Matt and I were supposed to set up, and they started setting up tents. Nicole gives us hugs and hellos and then the girl smarts off and starts cussing at Jason. Nicole is like, excuse me, goes over and tells the girl not to talk to her husband that way. The girl gets up...I mean chest to chest, and then shines the flashlight in her face. Nicole is like, Back up and get that light out of my face! The girl is like yeah, what are you going to do about it. I look away for seriously a split second to look at Matt and turn back around and these girls and Nicole are RUMBLING in the ditch. That girl hit Nicole in the face with that flashlight! It was drama, the cops came, they thought Nicole had broke her nose and the most important thing, we got our campsite! Nic is okay and it turned out being fun but it was a crazy start to an even crazier weekend!

With all the rain and flooding, the current was so fast! There was a group there from Missouri Western that we kept running into on the river and their dogs kept trying to get in our canoes. We were almost done with the float when I was on a different bank then the rest of the gang. Nicole was like I'll come get you. So she walked over and I followed back. Well, I had a water in one hand and a beer in the other, stepped on the most slippery log ever and totally faceplanted into the river, face first! So I have a giant gash/bruise on my right chin, a huge bruise on my inner bicep where Nicole tried to save me and cut up knees. It was hilarious!

So it was a pretty entertaining, fun, crazy weekend which is what we always expect float trips to be! That gang from KC are like gourmet chefs. Matt and I brought hot dogs and chips for dinner but they filled us up with kabobs, BBQ, smores and so much more! It was like 9:30pm and I was fighting to stay awake. Nic was like go to bed and as my eyelids are shutting, I'm like no I'm okay. Saturday night was the night of snorers...I think every other person at the campsite was snoring! So once again, we had a great time floatin' to the right and floatin' to the left...here's to next year!