Candace's Baby Shower...

...whew! What a weekend!!! First off, let me start off by saying that I just totally love Candace, Chad and their furbabies!!! They are great friends and they always make me laugh...my abs STILL hurt!!! We got there late Friday night and the boys started throwing back some Miller Light 16 ounces while Candace and I settled in for some late night Olympics. Saturday we all kind of bummed around until it was time to start getting ready for the shower.

Matt and I arrive early to set up about 12:45. From the moment I walked in, I could just tell by the look on the manager's face that something was wrong. Sure enough, they still had tables seated in the room we had booked when we arrived. No worries, the manager on the phone said we could have it at 1 to decorate, well.....1 turned into 1:30 with the shower starting at 2pm. The manager came over after about 10 minutes of waiting to tell me, "Next time (hello lady-there won't be a next time I live in St. Louis), you need to say you want to reserve the room at 1 if you want to start decorating at 1." Umm...excuse me? I told the guy on the phone I would be there at 1 to decorate so don't EVEN try to put the blame on me for lack of communication of your part. As soon as she said this, I could tell Matt had his, "Oh no you didn't lady...you have NO IDEA who you're messing with." Approximately 10 minutes from that and 20 minutes of waiting, she offered me a drink on the house. By any means, we got set up in town and everything turned out good...well except for the pizza mix up-more about that in a minute. Here are a few pics to recap the shower.

Here's Daddy Chad with his son's piggy bank. I brought the bank and on the invite I asked people to bring their spare change. The sign said, "Please donate to Baby Stracener's College Fund!!! He'll thank you when he's famous."

Here I am with Candace, one of my besties! Can't wait to meet her baby boy and be a good "aunt." I do have a little bit of practice you know!

Here are the AGDs that were in attendance. Left to right: Kristen, me, Candace, Lauren and Nicki Buckingham (I always have to call her by her full name).

This isn't a great picture but it's a pic of the book I made Candace. It's called "How I Met Your Mother." Guests sent or brought a picture of herself with Candace and then typed up a paragraph about how they met her written to the baby. I think it turned out really cute and she refused to read it there...it would probably have the same affect that monogrammed towels have on Angie.

So the actual shower went well except that of all the pizzas, they messed up Candace's!?! Go figure! She had requested Canadian bacon and sauerkraut (yuck-she said blame the baby)! Well, it came out with sausage instead. I didn't make a big deal out of it but when the waitress came around again, I asked if she would check what I ordered. She came back and quietly told me that yes, it was Canadian bacon I'd ordered so she'd take that pizza off the ticket. Okay, no big deal, right? She heads downstairs and then that stupid manager from earlier who tried to blame me on the 1pm deal came upstairs and asked how everything was going to the whole group. I nodded and said good. She then addresses everyone, "I heard that one of your pizzas was messed up? Well, we'll take that off the bill." Great lady! Thanks, I already know that and now that you've made this super awkward for everyone, you can leave!!! So really if that one manager lady hadn't been there, all would have been better.

Since we just ate a ton of pizza that afternoon, we couldn't really think of anything to do with prego that night so we grabbed some beer and stayed in for the night. Nothing like a good night of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and video games with great friends!!! I love you guys and I'm so excited for you two...well three!!!

Interesting Waiting Room Call...

...so yesterday I had to go to the girl doctor. I sign in, grab a magazine and sit down. There's myself, a woman about my age with her baby and her mom. After about a minute of flipping through my magazine, in walks a dad and his 17 year-old daughter. First thought, wow, wouldn't it be awkward to go to the girl doctor with your dad? Oh well, back to my mag...so they sit down and she gets called back right away. Dad stays in the waiting room and gets on the phone. O.M.G!!! This call was CRAZY!!!

So it's the girl's mom and the dad goes on to tell her about the conversation he had with the girl. Here's the summary...she's 17-years old, might be pregnant, won't go on birth control because she doesn't want to put chemicals in her body, dad text the boyfriend to tell him to threaten to break up with her if she didn't, boyfriend thought dad was threatening him, in dad's terms, "boyfriend is as stupid" as the daughter, the doctor was going to sit down and tell daughter her options then dad had to go tell receptionist that daughter wouldn't have insurance after she turned 18. WOW!?! Seriously, can you believe that??? The three of us just waiting are not making a word and this guy isn't even ATTEMPTING to be quiet. So as though its not awkward enough to have to go to the girl doctor with your dad, imagine how much worse it is when he's telling everyone your business?

OH IT GETS BETTER!!! The daughter comes out and dad, who isn't really trying to be quiet at all, asks what happened. Daughter, who apparently takes after her dad, lets all of us know that she got some sample packs of birth control but there's a chance she's 4 days pregnant so she has to come back and test again next week. Dad and daughter exit. I look at the other ladies waiting and comment, "WELL...now that we know her whole life story..."and the girl looks at me with huge eyes, "I know, right?" Then her and her mom go into a discussion about how awkward that whole thing was. I swear to you this is exactly what happened, I couldn't make that up!

And this my friends makes me nervous because if/when I have kids, I don't want to be sending Matt to the girl doctor with our 17 year old telling everyone in the waiting room her business...when did the world change so much???

Update About Mysteries...

...so I didn't want to leave you all hanging so I did a little research to find some of the answers from yesterday.

*I decided to search Saved by the Bell, here is the link I found. Apparently they never explained or had a reason for moving from Indiana to California so this mystery is left unsolved. I did find it interesting that Jaleel White (Urkel), Brian Austin Green (90210 hottie mchottie) and Johnathan Brandis (some Chuck Norris movie and a flying dragon movie or something) were all in the pilot episode...I would really like to see that! Maybe I'll search YouTube tonight. I also found the "Tori Paradox" interesting...again, no reason as to what happened to Kelly and Jessie other than IRL they didn't resign contracts. Side note: I remember watching the graduation show and I thought it was soooo cool because the graduated the same year as my sister!!!

*Olivia Newton John's boyfriend: Patrick McDermott...first off, she didn't report him missing for two weeks! Slam Dunk, help me out here, but this is NOT cool, right? Like if your significant other is missing, you should let people know IMMEDIATELY, right? And to top it off, it wasn't even ONJ that reported him missing-it was his ex-wife!?! And ONJ and him dated for NINE YEARS!!! They say he went missing to escape debt, come on ONJ, help the guy out! We know you're rollin' in the dough from all the royalties from Grease! OOOHHH!!! Apparently, the debt is from back child support...no wonder the ex-wife reported him missing, she wanted her money!!! Anyways, now he's living as a deck hand in Mexico and communicates via fax...come on Patrick read Amanda's blog and get with the times! You can read the story about him here. FYI-he went missing in 2005 and was "found" in 2009.

*Still have NO idea about the sign...hmmm...but Jess left a comment saying she found where I signed the guest book. I won't leave you a link but here's what I said, "Ace of Base is a really good group. When they first came out I loved them,but after awhile they got old,but now they are making a great comeback. i love Lucky Love. Ace of Base isn't my most favorite group but they're close. What other groups do you Ac e of Base lovers like? I like Mariah Carey,Alanis Morissette,Presidents of the U.S.A.,and LaBush. Where are all of you AOB lovers from? Ace Of Base ROCKS!!!!!"

*Em Static had a life mystery too so please let us know if you can help out. "Wasn't Roseanne's basement door on the other side of the kitchen (The stove side) in the first season? Then when David moved in it was on the laundry-room side.. Right?"

Sidenote...I am soooo tired!!! I had to work late on Tuesday and then a friend and her bf crashed at our house last night so I was up late waiting on them and visiting. Shadow has a new best friend as he CRAWLED in their laps last night. Tomorrow we're leaving for KC to throw Candace's baby shower...shoot, I'm going to need a weekend to recover from my weekend!

Life's Mysteries...

...now that I have this whole new Blog World open to me, I feel as though I can ask about some of life's mysteries and possibly have get some answers that I've been waiting for my whole life.

*During Saved by the Bell in the early episodes with Ms. Bliss, they all live in Indiana or something then in the later years, they all live in California. Why in the world did Zack, Screech, Lisa AND Mr. Belding all move from Indiana to California???

*Whatever happened to Olivia Newton John's boyfriend that disappeared in the ocean then turned up in Mexico last year? Don't you think it would've been easier to just break up with her, shoot send her a text, rather than cut off all ties from your entire LIFE!?! Besides, who want want to break up with Sandra Dee???

*What sign was Ace of Base seeing? Like, I saw the sign and I know what I want to do with my life or like, stop-you missed your turn, quit day dreaming sign? Used to (I haven't done it lately), if you googled my name (Alyssa and my maiden name) it would come up where I commented on an Ace of Base fan site when I was in fifth grade...I'm just that cool.

So please if you know the answers, let me know. What are your life mysteries? Maybe we can figure them out together!

Luxuries...

...you know you don't realize you have them until you don't. Yesterday at work, I went to the bathroom and stood up realizing that the toilet didn't flush on it's own. I didn't think too much about it, flushed it and went on my business. About 30 minutes later, a co-worker comes in and comments about the same thing and I thought I was the only one who noticed. Oh the small luxuries we have...don't worry a new sensor is coming for it tomorrow!

Funny story: While on the eliptical at work yesterday, I was watching "Ellen" and literally LOLing. It was hilarious...Dennis Quiad had an earpiece in and had to repeat everything Ellen told him to say to the lunch delivery guy. So he was saying things like, "Dennis Quaid is hungry like a wolf...HOOOOWLLL!!!" and asking the guy, "Do you think I'm pretty?" It was pretty funny...as I'm smiling and laughing while working out, I'm thinking to myself I must look like an idiot but I figured no one was watching me. Well, I was WRONG!!! About 2 minutes after this thought, one of the guys I know asked me if I was laughing at him...."No! No! It's just Ellen!" It was pretty funny!

Side note: Less than two weeks until Stairway to Heaving...I'm getting kind of nervous! A co-worker (not the same that was disappointed with the auto flushing) brought in a magazine today and was like, "Look Alyssa! This magazine has a training program for beginners for a half-marathon!" I looked at it, kind of puzzled because never in my life have I ever said I wanted to run a half-marathon but she planted that seed. So I'm really considering starting a half-marathon training program but the only thing is the one that I'm looking at has the word "HILL" in it and that is beyond intimidating plus add 13.1 miles-yikes! So what do you all think? Am I crazy? Should I do it? Should I get real and stick to 5ks? Let me know your thoughts and comments!

Angie's Baby Shower!!!

...Sunday afternoon was Angie's Baby Shower at Loretta's. The guest list consisted of her elementary school friends, high school friends, Supper Club, STL Wed Girls, Blog Friends...a wide variety of people from Angie's life. I'd met a few of them before at Angie's Halloween party so I had to ask what people were dressed up as so I could remember them...the referee, Snow White, half of H1N1 were all there but in their every day clothes.

Loretta had a giant pretzel in the shape of a baby carriage from Gus' plus delicious lime sherbert punch that we all guzzled down, chicken salad sandwiches, yummy salad, cheesecake and cookies! Thank you Loretta for feeding and hosting, it was great!

Here is Angie with Randall's super cute wrapped present, everyone commented on the wrapping.

Okay, I'm kind of afraid to mention the word monogrammed because it sends Angie into tears. She opened this m-word towels from Heidi and the water works started. It was so cute!!! Angie's going to make a great mom.

After the group shot of everyone at the shower (front row better be cropped from the waist down), we snagged a shot of our STL Blogger group. Left to right: Angie (she looks awesome and next time I see her she'll probably be a momma!), Randall, Heidi and myself.

Good luck Angie and we can't wait to meet you baby Nick!

Dr. Pepper Pork Chops-YUM!!!

...so Saturday, I "cooked" dinner which lead to a whole discussion of is it classified cooking when you just throw 4-5 ingredients in a crockpot? Thoughts? Comments? Anyways, I made Dr. Pepper Pork Chops. Can you say DELICIOUS??? I put them in about 10:30 am and we ate around 6ish...these things were fall off the bone good. I substituted Diet Dr. Pepper instead of regular and we didn't make the gravy or serve with rice. We like meat here at our household so we just ate the 'chops by themselves. I made four and I can't wait to eat the leftovers!!!

Matt left at 5am this morning to head to the farm with his dad then he's working the Sausage Supper at church this afternoon. I'm headed off to Angie's baby shower this afternoon, can't wait to see her and some of the other bloggers. OH! Last night, we went to Kohl's and I got this supper cute dress that doesn't make me feel like my hips are ginarmous. I'll be wearing it at Candace's baby shower next weekend so I'll post pics. Hope you all enjoy your Sunday!!!