Days off are great

Good things about today:

1. Went to the lake with some friends
2. Quickly found another photographer
3. Ordered fun (and very cheap!) lanterns for the reception
4. Put together more of the never-ending (yet awesome) invites
5. Made finishing touches on wedding website

It's been a good day! I hope its been a great Saturday for you all. :)

quickie

Just a real quick one before I go to bed...

Wolfgang and I are getting married in ONE month from today! whoo hooo!

:)

I'm not the only one who knows what they are talking about!

So we are taught to "love everyone," which is good and true. BUT, there's just something about French tourists that rub me the wrong way. Maybe it's because a large majority of the 1,000,000+ people that visit Lake Powell, are French. I think it's also the way they treat those of us being nice and helping them. I don't blame most of them for not knowing very much English, because we don't have any right to force that upon them or expect that. Although, I've even been in a situation where two French men were standing right in front of me and a co-worker (which they didn't know she spoke French) and were saying such rude, derogatory, and sexist comments right in front of us. After working out at the lake for several years now, I've definitely had my fair share in dealing with the French. Don't get me wrong, they are our brothers and sisters too, and I'm sure they have a sweet spirit too...but they are the ones that don't visit Lake Powell.

So today I came across this great article put on by msn.com and all I have to say is...

AMEN!!

read on, dear friends.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31827905/?GT1=43001

Disclaimer: I'm not a hateful person. Don't judge me. k thanks bye :)

The real deal

As I have mentioned in a post before, there are times when the wedding planning isn't the most pleasant, but that hasn't been the case these last few days! On Tuesday I ordered Wolfgang's wedding ring, and the pathetic thing is, is that was way too exciting for me! :) I guess it's just the fact when you work on the little details like that, it finally makes me feel the reality of it, which makes it so exciting. I hope that makes sense. Anyway...

Also today my incredibly talented cousin (well, second cousin that is) Mandy showed me what she came up with for our wedding invitations! It looks absolutely amazing, she did a great job on it! So THAT just adds even more to the excitement.

So you may think this post was pointless, but I guess I just wanted to share with you my excitement. :)

Weekend re-cap

My new job with the National Park Service so far is going well. Regardless of the fact that they still don't know what they are hiring me as (it's currently a mystery how much I'm getting paid) or what kind of schedule I will have, it's still a great job to have and it opens up a lot of opportunities for the future.
Here's a picture of the uniform that I now have to wear, but there is no way in hades that you can get me to take a picture of myself in the uniform, especially considering the lovely shorts are about 3-4 sizes too big for me.
Having me start work a little over a week before the 4th of July weekend was bad timing, especially in the Natural Resource department, with the zebra mussel prevention. My poor boss has been running around like a maniac, but everyone's efforts have been great and it's good to be around people who actually care about their job and want to make a difference and preserve such a beautiful place.

With that said, I have been nice when it comes to not having a truly defined job title, and just have been taking a day at a time. Although if I don't know in the next fews days, I'm going to have to crack the whip.
A couple of days I've been the office...bit-...helper, and for the hecktic weekend I was on the boat launch ramps helping with the zebra mussel prevention. It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, but I was still happy not to have to work the weekend, and still got paid over-time on friday. YES! I LOVE government holidays! :)

So for the weekend, my best friend Khrista's mom, Kay, rented a nice boat from a company in townI secretly wished I would of been able to drive a little, I miss my boat-driving days of being a boat instructor!

We packed all of our junk and 8 of us into it and it was great. The first thing I did was go on the tube with Khrista and it was great fun...until that last final moment when you know you are about to eat it hard, and I even heard my neck crack about 5 times, and maybe even saw a few stars after I hit the water...I guess Khrista and I just have way too much fun when we go water tubbing together, because the last time we went tubbing together, I got a concussion...

Needless to say I wouldn't let that get in the way, and we hopped back on the tub for another spin, but told my dad to go a little lighter on us that time. We also wake boarded, and it always reminds me of how I really need to do more strength training, and yes every muscle in my body is sore today. The price you pay to have a good time! But as we all know "all good things must come to an end"...
A couple hours later, unfortunately we weren't being careful about the rope tied to the boat and tube, and it got sucked into the jet propeler. If it would of been a regular prop, it would of been easy to cut and untangle, but this type of jet propeler is a lot more complicated and further under the boat. After many attempts by my dad and Khrista's boyfriend Brent to get it out, we were out of luck, and we lucked out and were blessed that some other family of ours were on the lake, so they had to tow us in. Our fun day was cut short! But it was good that we had fun while it lasted!
Today ended the great weekend by seeing a lot of family on the Dudley side that we hadn't seen in quite a while. There are so many to keep track of on that side of the family, but they are all great people and enjoyable to be around. Every time I see my (great) uncle I think of how my dad is almost a spitten image of him, and that I know my dad will almost look identical to him in a couple of years!

As you can see it has been a great weekend, and now it's time to go back to work tomorrow. Maybe if I'm lucky, by the end of the week I'll have a normal work schedule and every work day won't have to be a surprise!

red white and blue...baby!

Regardless of our country's faults, imperfections, etc (nothing's perfect, right?) I'm PROUD to be an American!!!

Happy 4th!