Mommin' It Up!

June 3, 2009

Yanni Voices Gone Wild!

Last night, Emily and I got to go see the Yanni Voices concert at the Nutter Center thanks to One2OneNetwork. As an added bonus, we also got to go with lots of other cool bloggers, including Andrea, Amy, Erin, Casey, and Emily (DesignHERMomma, not to be confused with the Emily of this here blog.) Some of the girls were even brave enough to bring their spouses. Here’s our group (don’t Amy’s and Andrea’s hubbies look thrilled?):

I can honestly say that despite seeing a couple of the Yanni Voices dudes at BlissDom, I had no idea what to expect from this show. And truly, I was wowed by the musical talent, of the vocalists as well as the musicians. My favorite part was a duel between a violin and a viola. That’s right, I said a duel, not a duet. It was pretty cool!

There was also a part where Chloe and Leslie, the females of Yanni Voices, were doing some pretty crazy stuff on a piano. Since it didn’t seem to actually involve any musical talent, Emily and I were thinking about trying out for those parts next time Yanni Voices holds auditions.

*ahem* Moving on.

After the show, we got to meet & greet with the “Voices”! But to get to them, we had to take an elevator down one floor. With all those people in the elevator, I was having flashbacks to THE Elevator, especially when two of the #Elevator13 were with me this time as well! Erin decided it would be fun to take a picture of me on the verge of my panic attack:

I was sooo happy to get out of that elevator!!

But anyhoo, the Yanni cast were so friendly. I wanted to get my picture taken with Ender, because we have the same haircut, but darnit, I never got to. So here he is with his #1 fan, Casey.

And here’s Emily and I with the girls of Yanni Voices, Chloe and Leslie. I advised them before we took this photo that they might want to suck their guts in a little bit so they didn’t look fat next to the hawtness that is me & Em:

And here’s Emily, Amy, me, Andrea and Erin with Nathan – such a nice and talented guy!

All in all we had a GREAT night! Such fun people to hang with and such a great show to watch!

Thanks to Erin for all the great pictures, I can’t seem to find the cord to my camera, but if and when I do, I’ll post some of my own!

May 27, 2009May 27, 2009

Well, this is it.

It’s just after midnight, and the very last day of my twenties has officially begun. I am really feeling pretty good about the whole birthday thing, but it is kind of strange to think about the end of an era. I’ve been thinking tonight about all the things that have happened since my 20th birthday. Since then, I…

… got engaged.

… graduated from college.

… got married.

… watched the towers fall.

… got a job.

… bought a house.

… read a few hundred books.

… traveled to San Diego and Denver, New York City and Cooperstown, Orlando and Houston, Cedar Rapids and St. Louis, Nashville and Louisville, Cleveland and Indianapolis.

… got another job.

… had a baby.

… made, kept and lost really good friends.

… listened to some really good music.

… bought another house.

… rediscovered the joy of trick-or-treating.

… started a blog.

… wrestled a snake.

… had another baby.

… discovered Facebook. Then Twitter.

… started graduate school.

… witnessed history.

… went to Disney World. Four times.

… sacrificed my dignity in the name of a good blog post.

… went to baseball games and zoos and museums and parks.

… woke up each morning.

… and kissed my babies goodnight.

All and all, it was a pretty good decade.

May 13, 2009May 13, 2009

Partyin’ It Up – For a Cause!

A few weeks ago, Emily and I were contacted by the good folks at Johnson’s Body Care to ask if we’d like to throw a party – sponsored by Johnson’s – to raise money for OUR favorite cause!

Heck yes we would! Who could turn that down? Both of us immediately knew what cause we would choose to raise $$ for – the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Emily’s husband Andy has lived with type 1 diabetes since he was 16, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this disease effects just about every moment of their lives. It doesn’t define them as a family but it factors heavily into how they function – and they look forward to a day when this disease will be eradicated! Research has made great progress in the last couple of decades – a perfect example is the insulin pump Andy has worn every day for the past 8 years that has greatly improved his health and quality of life.

So, anyways, get together with some of our closest friends, have lots of great food, raise money for a great cause and raffle off some incredible prizes? Yes, please!

Johnson’s Body Care sponsored the party by giving us money for the food and starting us off with $100 for JDRF!! And they provided these gorgeous swag-bags with full-sized Johnson’s Body care products inside! And travel sizes too!

Here’s Katie modeling her swag bag:

Thanks to Johnson’s support, we were able to treat our guests to some super-yummy food: a taco bar from Qdoba!

IT. WAS. SOOOO. GOOD!!

Emily also made our guests her famous Weight Watchers-recipe Margaritas. Here she is enjoying her creation:

Funny story: I have never bought alcohol in my life, and at age 31 Emily ruined me by calling me on the way to the party and asking me to buy “a cheap-@$$ bottle of Tequila”. So I obliged her and I am now a marked woman. We took a picture to commemorate my descent into debauchery (don’t worry Mom I didn’t DRINK any. I’m just pretending!!)

Ok, on to the PRIZES!!! We were able to get some amazing sponsors to donate prizes, which we raffled off to our ~~greedy~~ generous friends to raise money. Here are some of the AWESOME prizes we raffled off:

THREE KABOOST booster seats from Target

A Bug View, Bug Loupe, and zOrb from Carson Optical:

A cleaning product prize pack from Seventh Generation

A Clarisonic PLUS skin care brush (these things are amaaaazing!)

Fabulous SPF 15 skin care from Palmer‘s Cocoa Butter (love this stuff!) and my favorite organic lip balm set from EcoLips

A to-DIE-for prize pack of Eufora Hair Care products – my FAVORITE!!

Serif Digital Scrapbook artist and free CVS Photo Book!!

Great package of eco-friendly household products from EcoStore USA – another one of my faves!

Awesome Sun Care set from our friends at CVS!

This super-cutie apron by Taygalook modeled by Tricia of Once a Month Mom (who won it!) Isn’t she just GLOWING? Head over to her blog to find out why!

And here are some prizes that couldn’t be there in person but will be shipped to the winners!

Lee Colorwash Khakis (love!!)

A MyPublisher book – I LOVE these great photobooks!

A Sleep Number Pet Bed from Select Comfort:

A Yummie Tummie Lacie (I won this!! SCORE!!)

and our GRAND PRIZE…two Adirondack Chairs in the winner’s color choice from Lands’ End!

The lucky winner of this great prize was Andrea from MommySnacks!!

After all this great RAFFLIN’, we raised…..(drumroll please)….

$420 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU to all our prize sponsors, guests, and especially Johnson’s Body Care!!

(the cousins who blog and party together…)

Here’s some more eye candy – pics of our fabulous guests:

Thanks everyone for an AMAZING NIGHT!! We love you all!!