Catching up

2 posts in one day!  (It's obviously a slow day at work...)  Anyways, since I haven't posted anything this year before today, I thought I catch up on a few things that have been going on in our lives.  Thank goodness I keep a calendar so I can remember!

January:  We actually had a pretty good New Year's Eve.  (I hate the holiday usually.  Bad things have happened most years - confronting friends with drug problems, being sick, having fights with boyfriends, and a house burning down.)  But, Hubby loves it, so I went along with the plans.  A group of us went on the casino boat.  It was great and horrible at the same time!  I think we all knew how gross those boats are, so we went in with low expectations and made the most of it!  That month I also stayed with a photographer friend of mine for a weekend so she could teach me how to use my camera and the basics of photography.  I still don't know a lot, but she was a definite help!  And it was great catching up with her.  Also, we celebrated Hubby's 30th birthday in January.  We had a big party at our house, and I got him 30 presents!  It was a lot of fun!

February:  Compared to January, February was pretty slow.  One of my best friends was in the midst of wedding planning, so I traveled to her town for one weekend to try on dresses and tie up loose ends.  

March:  March was the beginning of wedding season for us.  And what a busy, and expensive wedding season it has been!  We started off by throwing a wedding shower at our house for one couple, the following weekend went to an engagement party for another couple, celebrated St. Patrick's Day the next weekend (which is always fun and exhausting here), and the last weekend traveled out of town for a wedding.  Thrown in there I also got measured for a bridesmaid's dress (and was told I was "thick around the middle" by the dressmaker several times), and we got to see the Avett Brothers!

April:  The first weekend in April we traveled to Albany for my best friend's wedding shower.  While at the shower, I was thrown off a golf cart and broke my knee!  I had to stay off my leg, on crutches for 8 weeks.  So most of our plans during those 8 weeks were cancelled...  Hubby had to travel a lot while I was laid up, but luckily my other best friend was able to stay with me when he was gone.  I had no idea how horrible crutches were!  You can't carry anything, it's difficult to get in and out of places and cars, doors that automatically shut were my enemy, and showers completely sucked!  And I missed out on so many things that I had been looking forward to - Girls Night Out, Steeplechase, my best friend's bachelorette weekend...  I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.

May:  Hubby and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary in May!  Well, we didn't do much to "celebrate" since I was still injured, but still.  Both of us thought we were so clever with our anniversary gifts though!  Since the 2nd anniversary is supposed to be the "cotton" anniversary, I guess we both Google'd gift ideas in order to be unique.  Surprise, surprise but we both got the other a hammock!  My brother thinks we should hang them on top of each other as hammock bunk beds.  In May my best friend, whose shower I was thrown out of golf cart at, got married.  I was the matron of honor.  I had to sit behind a tree while everyone walked down the aisle, then crutch my way down at the right moment.  It was humiliating!  The photographer also wanted to take pictures at all these different locations, and she didn't want my crutches in any of them.  So I'd crutch myself to where I needed to be (or in one instance, 2 guys had to carry me down a hill) then they'd snatch my crutches away from me!  It sucked and my leg was so incredibly swollen and painful!  But, my best friend was stunning and so happy.  It was worth it to be there for her.  The rest of May included a bachelorette party, two couple's showers, and Memorial Day.  And eventually, I was able to lose my crutches!!!

June:  June was fun.  We had 2 more wedding showers to go to, but we also had an out of town wedding to go to.  The wedding was so fun!  It was in Outer Banks, so Hubby and I took several days off of work and turned it into a vacation.  We stayed in a beach house with the other groomsmen (Hubby was a groomsman), and just enjoyed ourselves with our friends.  And it was really nice to not be in the wedding!  

July:  July was slower.  I went to a bachelorette weekend, which was a blast.  (And I made the dessert display which turned out to be super cute!  Cupcakes with chocolate seashells, and bikini cookies!)  And we went to my hometown for my stepdad's birthday - it was the first time we'd gone since Christmas!  

August:  This month I was in a wedding.  The bride is a good friend of mine (obviously), but has been best friends with Hubby since the 3rd grade.  I also work for her father and brother at their law firm.  It was another gorgeous, fun, busy wedding weekend.  But I'm glad that I'm almost done with weddings this year!  We have one more to go to next month, but we're just guests and it should be a lot of fun!  The other thing going on this month is Hubby and I are trying to get pregnant.  Our friends know, but our parents don't.  I don't want a lot of pressure from them - they'll be too excited!  It didn't work the first month, but we'll keep trying!  

And, now I'm caught up!  Maybe it won't be another 8 months before I write again, who knows??

Admission

Ok ok ok.  I admit it - I'm a horrible blogger.  I love the idea of blogging, but I'm not very good at actually going through with it.  I'm also not a very good writer.  How do people make the time to sit down and write?  

Actually, I know that answer, they make time because it's important to them.  It's a priority.  I just recently finished the book "Quitter" by Jon Acuff.  It is a book about "closing the gap between your dream job and your day job."  I bought it because I would love to become a caterer.  My life pretty much revolves around food.  If I'm not currently eating, I'm thinking about what my next meal should be, or looking up recipes to make one day.  I have 5 pinterest boards devoted to food or the kitchen.  Anyways, one of the many lessons in the book is to actually practice your dream.  And I do practice.  I love to cook.  Every meal may not be difficult, or creative, or outstanding, but I love cooking every one of them.  But what do I have to show for that passion, that love, besides the mess in my kitchen and the number on the scale?  I need to start documenting the meals I create, large and small, special and mundane.  That way I can have something to show when (cross my fingers) one day people want me to cook for them.  

A friend of mine and I have been talking about starting a party planning business.  We co-hosted a wedding shower together for friends of ours and it turned out really nice, and we've been wanting to turn that into something more.  She is far more creative than I am when it comes to putting together ideas, but I'll work my tail off, and I would love it if we could include catering into the business.  My friend has 2 smalls boys, a full time job, and an internet business, so she is super busy, and the timing isn't quite right for our idea.  But, if I stock up on photos and blog posts on here, when the time comes I'll have plenty to add to our party planning blog.  

I do know that I won't do step-by-step pictures of all my recipes.  Some recipes, yes, but most of them, no.  I want people to ask me to cook for them, not teach them how to do it themselves!  One issue I'm struggling with though, is I don't have any original recipes.  I follow other's recipes.  If I have a recipe in front of me, I can follow it so it comes out perfectly.  But, should I learn how to cook something on my own?  Should I go to culinary school?  There are at least two local colleges that offer culinary programs.  One of them is a 6 month, 5 nights a week program.  That sounds very overwhelming!  The other college sounds like it offers classes more like I'm used to.  I flip flop back and forth on this all the time.  On one hand, it would be wonderful if I could learn everything possible about cooking, recipe building, presentation, etc.  On the other hand, it's expensive, and I think I could come up with enough to be successful.  But do I want to just "come up with enough"?  Is that enough?  But again, I don't know where I'll come up with the money to pay for culinary school without some extra income.  I don't know what to do...

Anyways, back to the point of this post.  I'm a horrible blogger, but if I want to make cooking and catering a priority in my life, I can use this blog as a tool.  Many people may not see it, but I can store ideas and creations here for when I'm ready to reveal them.  Now to actually do it...