Dinner with a Friend

So this evening I met up with a friend for dinner. I have come to realize that everyone should take the time out their busy lives to enjoy a nice dinner with a friend.

It is strange though how women reach out to other women when they just need some time. I can't remember the last time that I heard a man say to another man "lets have a boys night out and do dinner." Why don't they I don't know, but I think they should.

It has been a long time since I have been out with a friend for dinner and let me tell you it was much needed. Just going out and having a beer and dinner makes everything thing else going in my crazy life seem okay for that one hour.

So thanks for going to dinner with me it was really nice. We should try and do it more often!

Christmas Party and Wish for the New Year

On December 17th I hosted my first Christmas Party which was an absolute blast! We had a full sit down dinner with all of the trimmings thanks to all of the girls. It was great to see everyone spending time together during this special season.

This upcoming year is going to be a very special year for our group of friends.

Jesse and Shaun will become parent in January when their little boy Aidan is born. I know that Jesse and Shaun both are a nervous wreck but I will tell you what they will be great parents! I am so happy for them. Along with the arrival of Little Vaught will be the birth of Brandon and Jennifer’s little girl! (Don’t know if they have picked out a name yet). I am so happy for both couples it is great!

So we have two babies coming in 2006 and then we also have two weddings in 2006.

Jesse and Shaun will be getting married on June 10th in Front Royal, Virginia which is where Jesse is from. Then Brian and I will be getting married in the fall of 2006.

Cross your fingers for Emily in the hopes that Justin will propose to her this year, they will have been together 5 years in January.

Cross your fingers that Mary gets her wish and that Ben finally gives in on having a baby. That is all Mary wants.

For Velvet and Kevin I wish them the best of luck with new little one which was born September 28th of this year. I hope Jordan gets all the sour strawberry bubble gum she can get her little hands on. I love that little girl she is so sweet.

So to each one of our friends Brian and I wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with lots of love and laughter!

The Engagement and the Family

On November 25th Brian and I got engaged, and we are both very excited. We have not set a date for the wedding due to Brian getting a new job and will be gone for 6 weeks training. We will probably take the big leap in September or October of 2006. More than likely the reception will be held at the Thornspring Golf Club in Pulaski. We have to wait for the ACC to release the Tech 2006 schedule! Can't have a wedding on a home game! I have already begun my search for a wedding dress and I have my appointed wedding coordinator Velvet on hand to help me with making the right choices. It is great to have a friend like her! I am glad you are so honest with me. I have begun to read up on the do's and don’ts of planning wedding. Gosh there is a whole lot to do!! In one article I was reading on theknot.com and it stated "you can't please everyone at your wedding", well if you know me I am a people pleaser so how does some one like me not do that? This is what brings me to my issue with families and weddings.

At some point I do believe people become closer to their friends then their own families, at least I am. I have been living in Southwestern, VA since August of 1998 when I started at Radford University. Since moving down here in 1998 there has never been a moment where I have ever considered moving back to McLean, VA where I am originally from. My father’s family on the other hand would love to have me up there living their type of lifestyle. Yeah I can say up until I came to RU I was that type of person everything had to big and expensive. I dreamed of having a huge wedding with tons of people at some famous place, now I just dream of having a wedding surrounded by the people who matter most to me. My family still believes that I need to have some upscale wedding with all the bells and whistles, especially my 23 year old brother. I never really knew how much he cared about where I had our wedding till yesterday.

I was chatting with him on AIM when he lashed out and got very mad when I told him that we would be getting married down here. He wanted us to have our wedding at my Uncle Victor’s farm house in Charlottesville, VA. Velvet has been there and it is a beautiful place, but it isn’t where we want it to be. There 4 reasons why I will not have the wedding there.
1. Almost 95% of guest that will be invited are from down here or south of here and I do not want people to have to drive 2.5 hours to the farm
2. The closest hotel to the farm is 30 miles away.
3. We would like to get married in September or October which means it will be rather chilly in the evenings and if at the farm it would have to outside, I am not taking chances with the weather.
3. The most important reason is that Brian and I want to plan our own wedding and make it as easy as possible and having it out of town would just be too hard.

So if anyone out there has advice on how to solve the thousand year old problem about weddings and families, I would love to hear them. I am just grateful to have friends like Velvet and Teresa who I can vent to on this problem. They think my family is nuts. I hope Velvet is ready to go to battle with them J!!