Weekend Update

The big race was Saturday and I placed 5th. So no money off my dress, which stinks, but I did win a free night stay at The Chateau Hotel in Bloomington. So it was worth the embarrassment. :) Here are some pictures from the day...

The sign Ashley made....which said "Run Emily Run"

(there is a bride on the left of the sign, wearing a veil and tennis shoes!)

Kym and Ashley clamping up the back of the dress, hopefully making it easier to run!

Ryan came to support me...even tho he knows I'm REALLY slow!

The competition

Sisters

My brother videotaped the race on his phone. It is SO funny! As soon as we start running you can hear the crowd scream for their bride. We had to run the perimeter of the parking lot twice and on the first turn 2 girls in front of me "ate it!" I had to pretty much jump over them. One of the girls who fell quit right then and the other girl ended up in 2nd place. Which shows that I'm really slow if the girl who fell beat me. I saw one of them after the race and her arm was torn up and bleeding. (I guess that's why we had to sign a liability form!) Oh and if you saw the pantagraph on Sunday I'm in one of the pictures. It looks like I'm smiling or laughing, which my family tells me I shouldn't have been doing....I needed to be focused!

After the race I showed "my fans" the dresses that I liked at the store, with the exception of Ryan and Reagan who were playing outside. (Thanks Reagan for not letting Ryan see me) The girls wanted to try on dresses so we spent the rest of the morning looking at bridesmaid and jr. bridesmaid dresses. And I'm thrilled because we found "the one's." (My sisters are happy too because the dress comes in their sizes as well!)

Later that day we had a wedding reception to go to in Lexington. Angie Coop, my old boss at Glik's, got married in Jamaica on the 17th and then had the reception here once they got back. She looked beautiful and I'm so happy for her! Oh and we took a couple pictures before going to the reception, but I would look good and ryan would look bad or vice versa....so I decided not to share any...Sorry!!

Sunday we ate lunch with Ryan's family who had come to the States to visit. It was great to finally put faces to the names. We didn't get to visit with them for that long because we needed to get back to Dekalb for work. So hopefully they will come to Pontiac again and we will be able to spend more time with them.

This weekend was a BLAST and every time we have to start that almost 2 hr trip back to Dekalb I get upset. I can't wait for this coming Fall Semester to be over with, so we can move back home. December can't come fast enough!!

25 Years!

CONGRATULATIONS!! 25 years ago today my mom was getting ready to walk down the aisle and marry my dad. It was the hottest day of the summer. Their colors were blue and white and the theme was "Precious Moments." This past Sunday we had a "suprise" open house for them at Grandma and Grandpa's house. With help from my aunts and grandmas we were able to pull off a pretty great party! (THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP!!) Oh, and for those of you who saw the announcement in the paper (about 5 times), Ryan and I aren't married yet....he's still my fiance (finance) and the wedding is next summer. I hope we are as lucky as my parents and share a wonderful life together.

Facts you may or may not know:

-my parents have six wonderful children (Emily, Michael, Rhys, William, Elizabeth and Grace....and seven if you include my dad's favorite child, Paul Bunyan)

-when the family only consisted of mom, dad, and ME we used to live in Bloomington, but drive to Pontiac everyday so my mom could teach at Graymont, dad could work at the bank and I could go to preschool at Noah's Ark.....good thing gas prices weren't what they are now!

-the last four digits of our home telephone number is 2383, which is my parents wedding date, July 23, 1983

-going along with telephone numbers, my mom's parents last four digits are 5993 and my dad's parents last four digits are 3995.....which I have always thought was ironic!

-they have 2 children in college and 3 children driving

-we visit "Heaven on Earth" (our cabin in minnesota, on lake sylvan) every summer as a family

-they looked up their wedding date in the Farmer's Almanac to see what the weather would be like....and it was right on the dot! Hot Hot Hot....

-they are gaining a new son, Ryan

-and they have 7 children who really love them!

Congratulations again Mom and Dad!

Here are a few photos from the open house.....

Cutting the Cake

Reagan took this picture!

25th Precious Moments Cake Topper

Catchers of the Bouquet and Garter (Uncle Rich and Aunt Pam)

Twin Cousins- John with his BIG smile and Natalie

Look at those cuties :)

Meet Ya at the Finish Line

I need to dust off the running shoes because I have signed up for the "Running of the Brides." When we went to Bridal Elegance in Bloomington, our consultant Alex gave me a flyer and told me about the event. Brides are dressed in a wedding gown and have to run from their parking lot to one down the way. Tennis shoes are allowed!

1st Place=$500 off a Wedding Dress

2nd Place=$250 off

3rd Place=$100 off

I'm not the fastest runner, but I'm going to try my hardest because wedding dresses aren't the cheapest thing. If anything else, it will be a great photo opportunity for our wedding album. :) The race begins at 8:45 a.m. this coming Saturday. Wish me Luck!

Dress Shopping

The wedding planning has been stalled recently because we have been extremely busy with work and school. We finally had a couple days off work and I decided I needed to go dress shopping again. I called David's Bridal and set up an appointment this past Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. So Judy, Aunt Theresa, and Grandma Reeter met at my house and we were off to Peoria. Right before walking in I got a text from Ashley (MOH) that said her plans changed and she was on here way over. (YAY! I was excited.) We weren't even there 5 minutes and we were getting in trouble. I was giving the lady my information and she told me to ask "my ladies" not go through the dresses. (It wasn't like they were going through the rows of dresses; they were just looking at the ones on the mannequin’s.) Then Erin our consultant took us to the dressing room and started pulling the dresses we wanted to see. The first couple of dresses felt and looked very cheap. They started to get better towards the end, but still no luck on "the one." Finally, the last one ended up being the best out of the night. I can't say what it looked like, or post a picture, because Ryan will read this and it's bad luck for him to see or even have a slight idea of what it looks like. So trust me it was pretty :) Elizabeth had my camera and would snap a bunch of pictures every time I came out of the dressing room. Since I was getting my picture taken a lot, I wanted to get one of the couch.

They were GREAT help!!

When looking through the pictures, Elizabeth said "Oh, and there are some personal one's." So I thought I would share them..

It ended up being a good time and thanks to everyone who came.

I was planning on hanging out with the family the next day before heading back to school, but decided last minute to take my mom to the Bridal Elegance in Bloomington and hopefully show her the one's we liked from the Bridal Elegance in Ottawa. Kym had the day off, so her and Grandma Reeter came too! This trip ended up being the BEST one so far. They didn't have the same selection from Ottawa, so I couldn't show my mom those, but I did try on new ones and every dress was BEAUTIFUL. I might have found "the one" there. I have such a tough decision ahead....

Happy Birthday Rhys!!

Today my brother turns 16!! He was born on a rainy summer day in 1992. Michael and I were at grandma and grandpa reeter's house with grandpa. Grandma Reeter was already at the hospital. When grandpa got the call for us to come to the hospital he realized we didn't have any rain gear (it was summer). So since I was bigger than Michael, grandpa gave me one of his jackets to wear. Michael definitely couldn't fit in grandpa's coat considering he was only 3 years old, so grandpa cut a hole in a grocery sack and put his arms through the bag handles. We were a site to see, let me tell ya! When we got to the hospital we saw our new baby brother, Rhys. We were so excited to expand our family to five. Happy Birthday Rhys! We love you!

Best Way to Spend the 4th!

"One man's junk is another man's treasure", as we find out every 4th of July when we go to the Chenoa & Towanda Flea Markets. This tradition began in 2004 and we are always curious to see what is being sold. We arrived in Chenoa to find that every year it gets smaller and smaller. Here is a pic of Ryan with his first purchase. (looney toons drinking glasses.....which we don't need)


Our next stop was Towanda. This flea market seems to be growing, but we think it's a bit over priced. Right after Ryan talked a guy down on a Coors beer pitcher we ran into Connie & George (Grandma and Grandpa Sweitzer). They are annual goers and this year his grandma was looking for new books. Here is another pic of Ryan looking at old coins.

Ryan wanted me to buy something, but there wasn't really anything that caught my eye.......EXCEPT for a green tulip lamp we saw back at the Chenoa flea market. But we had already left there and the lamp was $25.00. So I told him I wouldn't get anything this year. Judy ended up coming to Towanda with Greg and TJ. So we met them at "Kicks" for some lunch. I had a cheese burger/fries and Ryan got pig wings (he always gets the weirdest sounding things off the menu). The food was yummy, but I kept thinking about that lamp. So after we ate I told Ryan, lets go back to the flea market and if the guy is still there selling the lamp & you can talk him down to $20.00 I'll buy it. So off we were back to Chenoa.

Ryan- Can I take this lamp off your hands for $20.00?

Guy- 20?....ummm....I guess I can do 20.

SOLD!!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but it's one more neat lamp to add to my collection :) After a Coors beer pitcher, 3 looney toons glasses, and a lamp we called it a day. Kori called and invited us to go with her, Chelsea, and Kristin to Bayou Bluff for a fun afternoon/night of canoeing and camping. We called Dan, another friend, to see if he would want to come with us. He said yes and we were on our way to the campsite. Kori had given me directions to get there. This is what happened when I relayed them to Ryan.

Me: Okay Kori called and told us to go past Cornell, take a left at the Camping sign, the road will curve and there will be a tiny sign that says bayou bluff, follow that past the horses and the entrance looks like someones house. Don't go down the hill and take a left at the park.

Ryan: Girls and directions....We're in the middle of the country, I'm sure we are going to see a million horses!

Me: Shoot I should have asked her what color they are!

We FINALLY made it to the site. Here are some pictures...

Sometimes the canoeing turned into walking....as you can tell by the ankle high water.

Happy 4th of July!!

Sox / Cubs

Ever since I can remember I have been a Cubbies fan. Recently (Since being with Ryan) I have become a Sox/Cubbies fan. We went to a Cubs game a couple summers ago and this coming August we will be seeing the Sox play (Thanks to Elizabeth and her letter to the paper)!



The past two weekends the Cubs and Sox have been playing each other. Usually I'm not that into the games, but once Ryan mentioned he had a bet going with Craig I became an avid follower of the game. (Ryan doesn't have good luck with bets)


Bet: Cubs win, Ryan owes Craig $2 - Sox win, Craig owes Ryan $2 (Sweep=$10)


Of course, the first series was at Wrigley Field and the Cubbies swept the Sox.


Ryan: Down $10
Emily: Mad


The bet went double or nothing for the next weekend and they played each other at the Cell. Ryan and Craig came over to my apartment for the last game of the series. We ate chicken wraps (my favorite) and meatballs for supper. (weird combo)


Outcome of the game: the Sox swept the Cubs!


Ryan: Broke even
Emily: Happy!