pretty darn good wedding guest dressees

so you may remember my triumph, my disappointment, my search for a back-up dress to be a wedding guest in may.

you may also have heard about my debate about whether or not one of my back-up choices was too white.

and then the follow-up of which i decided the spoken of alternate was not fabulous enough to grace my body for a special event. :)

you may also be holding your breath with me while i wait for the two dresses i ordered to arrive in the mail to see how they fare. one may be too white, one may be too short.

for some reason or another

i did indeed find a lot of gorgeous dresses that were just not right for me, or for the event, or for the time of day

in which this wedding was taking place.

but

if YOU happened to be going somewhere where these WERE totally appropriate

i don't think you could go wrong with any of these choices. :)

heck, i might even have to re-evaluate my own choices

if those other two don't work out.... :)

cake wrecks

i'm in a fairly mellow mood today,

searching for a Something to share with you online.

oldie but goodie?

cake wrecks

have fun.

if you like it....

lara posted this on her blog

and it still makes me laugh.

re-post!

handful of balloons

Taste of Belgium

has this cool thing called

the "Chef's Table."

Basically, if you have a party of 8 or more, you can reserve to all sit together at this Chef's Table that is pretty much right in the middle of the action.

You can see everyone working!

It's awesome.

It's basically a long, beautiful table that we set up for dinner.

Parties can choose a pre-fixed menu, or you can order from the evening's selections.

i served my first party of 12 this past saturday.....

and made a ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLAR TIP.

OAIOHVAKMNEOIJR

THEN

there was a second chef table that evening

ANOTHER party of 12

and John took it.

HIS TAB WAS CLOSE TO 1000 dollars!

OAIOHVAKMNEOIJR!!!

anyway, the second party ended up being a birthday party, and it turns out, Taste of Belgium is an exceptional place to have a birthday party. John, it turns out, just so happens to be an exceptional waiter, and he seriously knocked that party of 12 OUT OF THE FREAKING PARK.

the bday party hung balloons, brought presents, brought cake, then ate food, drank wine, loved each other, and left.

and they left the balloons.

"allyson, do you want these?" my manager asked. he gestured to the balloons. twenty of them. pink, orange, green, blue.

YES

my heart pounded

YES

they're beautiful

YES

then i laughed!

i suddenly had twenty balloons!

i couldn't wait to see what aaron would do when i brought them home.

turns out, it's difficult to wrangle 20 balloons into a small car.

turns out, it's hilarious to walk through the drunken saturday night of clifton with 20 balloons.

turns out, aaron loved them (for like, five seconds,) and thought they were hilarious.

we still have them in the house, probably for their last day today, because they DO stink, and they ARE deflating.

but i gave four of them away last night, to the two little girls who live across the street, and they gave me delighted hugs in return.

I LOVED IT!

my dad is more popular than me on facebook

HOW does he have 116 people LIKE his status?

i have a theory that about 30% of your friends actually see your statuses...so, if 30% of them saw this, and assuming all 30% of those friends LIKED it.....then my dad is unbelievably far more popular on facebook than i could ever hope to be.

give me donuts or give me death

spring things

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

today

is a good day

to do something SCARY!

happy friday the 13th!

I'M NOT PREGNANT

my dad put this up on his facebook and i got a text from a friend:

YOU'RE NOT PREGNANT, ARE YOU?

basically.

and i was all,

NO WAY

BUT MY BROTHER IS.

which is true.

my brother and his wife (my awesome sister-in-law) mechelle are preggers and having a baby,

the FIRST grandbaby in our family,

and my first child to cut my own teeth on in aunthood-land.

(mechelle already told me they're happy to call me "aunt allyson the great," so we've got the most important issues figured out already-thank you)

in fact

here's a great photo of my parents being told that they're going to be grandparents.

so exceptional!

it also raises a good issue for chester

just where DO babies come from??

HMMMMM

new options

remember that the dress i wanted looks horrible on me?

here are the new champions.

what do you think??

got something better?

throw it my way!

emergencies on the home front

i bought this dress from modcloth

it cost a bazillion dollars

but i had a coupon and a tax return

and decided it would be an investment piece.

it's gorgeous

it's well-made

and it's amazing.

and then i tried it on.

and it was horrendous.

well, it wasn't.

but i was.

it was oh so short on me.

wayyyy too short to be seeing that much thigh.

and unfortunately, my summer coloring,

a little less pale and sickly than now

has not come in

and won't come in in the next month before i planned on wearing this divine treasure of dresses.

so it's getting shipped back.

AND NOW!

i have no back-up plan.

i need a special dress for a wedding

and i'm on the prowl.

suggestions?

i'd LOVE to hear them.

his and hers

easter 2012, recapped

i spent Easter 2012 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Oklahoma? you ask

what could ever possibly be in Oklahoma?

The answer, my dear friends, is nothing.

Except for the loves of my lives.

Duane, Mechelle, Mechelle's in-laws.

So

NOTHING is in oklahoma

except family

and land 

and cows

and horses

and actually, all truth told,

that's exactly the way i like it.

i showed up before they did.

a night before.

but they caught up QUICKLY.

Chester, above, was flipping out over his new Oakleys. 

He wore them everywhere, even attempted wearing to Easter Mass, but Dad whacked him and told him INAPPROPRIATE and he was a little sad.

hijinxes quickly ensued

i took a picture of stephanie taking a picture of kristen taking a picture of me.

we're all posting them on Facebook to see who connects the dots.

duane and mechelle

moved into a new house

took us all to a BBQ

and basically just celebrated being in love.

the twins treated me like a queen.

as they should.

and we ran a lot of errands together 

including 

going to some hillbilly supply store

where dad bought duane a new weed eater

as a "welcome to your new house" gift.

i jumped on jared's back

and basically annoyed him but he loved it.

and tim

who, notice, has biceps the size of stephanie's head

jumped on everyone

and annoyed everyone

but we all love him anyway.

easter sunday became easter saturday for us.

and chet, aka, "the easter bunny,"

hid all our baskets

and we all found them and celebrated and had a peep war

because 

mom always insists on giving us peeps

and none of us like them even a little bit

and so we just throw them at each other.

easter chocolate is the best chocolate

so i killed my easter bunny

making him "ROAD KILL" 

easter sunday, after church.

it was awesome.

kristen and i took a little photo op

and i love that girl

and love her face.

she was a fantastic photographer all weekend.

we went to mechelle's parents house

my brother duane's in-laws

who we all love and adore

and my folks stay with them

and they stay with us

and we all have a great time together.

they have a farm

with horses

and baby horses

and baby cows (which i LOVE,)

and pigs and chickens and 160 acres of oklahoma land.

we loved it all.

we walked, rode, hiked, loved.

and i fed a baby cow, which is the only thing i want to do every day for the rest of my life.

i LOVE baby cows.

i rode the horse too.

the one that is scared of his own shadow

and chester came tralloping up to me on the horse

and the horse freaked out and started being all freaky

and i got freaked out

and calmed the horse down

and then dad grabbed the horse

and chester walked slowly away.

apparently chester also got out in the middle of a lake in a little boat

but i was already on my way to the airport

so i missed all that fun.

i LOVE my family.

the twins and i had a quick photo op together

which i love

because these are the babies i grew up with and they're amazing.

my mom has a really fantastic way of including all our family in our family photos.

for example,

when mechelle married duane

she became my sister-in-law

and rose to a status on equal par with my sisters.

I LOVE THIS.

family is a choice

and i have room and love for all the family i can stand.