A lot of people get married three times in two years!

In other news...myself as well as the rest of my family were FINALLY able to partake in one of my brother Josh and sister n' law Nicoleta's wedding celebrations! The two of them met in a whirlwind back in the fall of 2008 in Romania-Josh was stationed in Italy at the time, fell in love and were married in January of 2009 in a small civil service in Italy so Nicoleta would be able to go with Josh when he changed bases in March. That's one! They ended up moving back stateside in March of 2009 where they now live in Arizona and just this last month had not one, but TWO wedding celebrations, one in Romania with Nicoleta's family and one here in Portland with our family! There are two and three! Talk about a busy first couple years of marriage!

Their Romanian wedding was a full on church service and FaBuLOus celebration! We watched the 4+ hours of footage:) A day complete with beautiful traditions, lots and LOTS of circle and regular dancing, a HUGE cake as tall as Nicole in the shape of the Eiffel Tower with sparklers and of course many dinner courses and drinks. They both said it was a wonderful time with new family and friends.

Back in Portland...my grandparents flew in from North Carolina along with my uncle and aunt from Minnesota for a week of eating, talking, laughing and enjoying family. The wedding reception was on Thursday night October 21st and most definetely a night to remember. I'm so very happy for my little brother and welcome Nicole into our crazy family, even if it is almost two years late:) Congrats to the Fetrows!

My top pics from the week of Fetrow-family-fun!

father and sons

 Brothers

how we spent most of the gorgeous weathered week!

 Addy getting her hair done

 Hair...check!

Mom and aunt Becky "fussing" over the bride

 Fetrow siblings

 Ready for the party to start!

 Dancing with teacher Jessie!

 Who is older again??

 The new Lord of the Dance:)

 Totally expected this lol

 we have awesome dance skills

 One of my favorites from the night:)

 Alexis and Addy

 Everyone enjoyed the toasts

 happy couple

Mom and Sunshine

Big sister knows best, right? :)

Outside my window...is a gorgeous fall colored tree!


I am thinking...about Halloween shenanegans to come in the next few days!

I am thankful for...a fabulous family who loves and encourages me, a stable job that allows me to be on my own, a rabbit that acts like a dog and my actual pup Toby of course, my education, health, as well as all that I have learned in almost 28 years.


I am working on...finishing my Masters in Education and curriculum, securing a job for next year and finding an awesome man:)


I am going to...fold some laundry, shower, take Falcon to my parent's house, and head to Salem for OSU Beaver fun tomorrow!! Go Beavs!!
I am reading...only linguistics presently, but can't wait to get my hands on the new Percy Jackson novel!!


I am hoping...for an amazing weekend full of tricks and treats:p
I am hearing...the wonderful sounds of silence.

Around the house...Alicia and I are getting things settled and in their places.


One of my favorite things...snuggling on the couch with somebody special or a great book.


Plans for the rest of the week: Well, it's Friday now so I have nothing, but fun things planned for this Halloween weekend! Not limited to attending an OSU football tailgate and game, Halloween parties, fun with friends and of course Sunday kickball!

Pic of the week:

3rd times' the charm Josh and Nicoleta!

Taking it old school...but with brand new CRAZY rules!

Kickball is back and super cool! Well, maybe not super cool, but it sure is TONS of fun! Myself and some dedicated and might I add awesome people decided to put a team together...we call ourselves The Grasskickers. We have yet to kick major "grass" yet (haha:) but we are enjoying our first season. The rules sure have changed since playing during recess in elementary school with crazy bouncing pitches and funky strike zone rules. We've won a few, lost a few, but I can say this...we are having a great time on Sunday afternoons! A shout out to my team: Siphavy, Keli, Andy, Brandon, Bridget, Chris, Mouse, and David. You guys RULE! Please enjoy some pics from our season so far.

Keli, Siphavy and I post game

Heads up Andy!

 We are pretty good buddies:)

 First team pic of the season!

 Although I look awesome, this is NOT how you kick the ball lol

 Strategizing

 This is how we do!

 Mouse and V!

 Awesomeness!

 Grasskickers

 Little V!

Spectacular shoes

Today was one of those weird days when the unexpected happens. Totally caught off guard, you are forced to re-evaluate a previous made decision. This can happen with anything really, but for me, it of course had to deal with a man. I'm as SHOCKED as you are!! 


So, I am currently dating as my sister refers to it, but I like to think of it more like shoe shopping. It puts a fun, new flair on dating don't you think? :) SO, when it comes to picking out a new pair of shoes I can be crazy indecisive! Most will say I'm the pickiest of the pickiest with new shoes. I can and do find fault or refuse to see faults in said shoes. 


Picture, if you will, me sitting on one of those shoe benches with a cool new pair in front of me. I put the what I am sure will be glorious shoes on (let's face it, for me to even pick the pair off the shelf they have to be something special), and I walk around in the shoes, check them out in the mirror and all while I'm doing this I am picturing all my various clothing complementing these shoes. Does anyone else do this when they shoe shop? 


Picking out a good man is done in much the same way as strange as that sounds. I won't just date any man. He must be special, put a sparkle in my eye if you will:) Once I think I've found a good one, we try each other on (but not like that!) What I mean is we spend time getting to know one another, likes, dislikes, family, friends, activities, beliefs, goals, etc. Is this person someone I enjoy being around, do I WANT to be around this person? I usually know if the fit is right early on in the "trying on" phase, but I have been fooled a couple of times. 


One such "shoe" flew under my radar (yes, my shoes can fly:) I chose this shoe, put up good effort to get this shoe out of the store, but it almost didn't seem worth it having to dig through boxes looking for my RIGHT size...this guy was a challenge. FINALLY, got the right size on and headed out the door with plans for me and these shoes in the near future.  I went for a "stroll" (for Sunshine, a date:) in my new shoes. It was easy and fun, but something about this pair seemed, off. It took awhile to get my strides in sync. But by the end of the date (stroll), I knew I wanted to wear these shoes again, at least to try them with a few different outfits. (Is anyone still following this :D) However, for some reason these shoes did not make my normal rotation and I nearly forgot about them.


Until today. I peaked under my bed and what did I find? That good looking pair of shoes calling out to me! Same spark! (I am literally laughing out loud as I am writing this! :P) I'm ready to give this pair another go round! To be continued...

"Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies." Sarah Jessica Parker

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it! (Well, I probably could, but what would be the fun in that?"

Ooooh geez, I apologize for being absentee in blog land as of late, but my life has literally turned into the movie Groundhog Day. You know the one where Bill Murray just keeps reliving the same day over and over and over again, with a few minimal changes with the hopes that something interesting might happen? Welcome to my life right now:)
The school year is only about two weeks in and payroll is literally dragging their feet in putting my paperwork in so I can be in the "new fangled" substitute system so I'm going on month three of no work. Most people would be excited about this, but believe it or not, I actually enjoy having a difference between my weekdays and my weekends:)
I thought instead of sharing all the AWESOME things that are NOT going on right now in my life that I would share all the super-cool things I'm OOBER excited for in the coming months...
1. September 28th...moving in with Alicia!
2. Kickball Sundays through November 6th...GO GRASS KICKERS!
3. October 21st...Josh and Nicoleta's wedding reception and week of family fun!
4. November 9th...My 28th birthday!
5. November 19th...Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie out!

The little things that matter most

Quote for today...“People love others not for who they are but for how they make them feel”
Irwin Federman

My thoughts for today...If you're lucky enough to find someone who makes you feel like smiling all the time, keep them around. Life is too short to spend it with people who don't make you feel good and honestly happy!

Life is a highway...

Wow. June and July have floooown by! I swear I blinked maybe twice and it is August already!? Both were filled with fun times with friends, summer sports, grad school classes and an allergic reaction?! All the best things of summer! But as July comes to a close, I am allergy free, have one more week of summer grad classes, loving softball and mushball not to mention many possibilities!!

Here is a top ten list of my fabulous summer fun times over the last few months!
10. Celebrating friend's weddings: Kristin and Joe and Brynn and Nick

9. Meeting some great new friends and opening a few "doors" ;)

8. Finishing my ESOL worksample and first teaching job in the states

7. Spending a week watching my nieces while my sis and bro n' law enjoyed Hawaii

6. Joining a dance group called Remix to shake my bootie and finding a love for kickboxing!!

5. Visiting my BBFF in San Diego including a weekend of Mariners' and Padres' baseball!

 

 

4. Finding out Alicia is moving back in September and getting a roomie to move out with:)

3. Celebrating my ten year anniversary camping at the Cove Palisades with Jess and her amazing family!

2. Playing Mushball every Monday with a team of super fabulous people!

1. Playing on pretty much the coolest softball team ever!
                                                   (Did I mention we were the Champions of the league?? :-)

Here comes August!