Hey You're Lucky, We Bowling Tonight!

[PLEASE tell me SOMEONE knows where that quote in my title is from!] 

Saturday was HECTIC. We were at my moms all day getting her Dining Room ready for her Birthday Suprise and we were literally there all day long from 9AM to 10PM. But my store had wanted to get together to go bowling. And I don't flake! So Jose and I went... and it was sooo much fun. Do you know how awesome it is to work for CVS? Well in my store, it kicks ass. lol We got the best crew around. Don't believe me?

 

Yup. I'm the short brunette in the back throwing it up. Not sure why I look so small but whatever. We cool. And Saturday night was awesome.

Jose was a trooper for coming since it isn't even his store. But he works for CVS too so he counts lol [yup... we met at CVS!] 

[my boss, Patty, is the shit. and she's the EXACT same age as me. lol and she's become one of my best friends. Its weird... a best friend being your boss. But me and my boss going shoppin on thursday so hey!!]

[the cool kids. for real, these are the coolest people in our store. And Karen. She's older than my mom lol but she's like a mom to us all so we love her anyway.]

[Taylor and Kyle. Real love birds at CVS.  Awww.]

[Jose, me, Patty and her husband know how to REALLY get your score up in bowling.]

Ohhh and guess what?? I've got my wedding pictures!! FINALLY!! So you know what that means!! RECAPS!! bwahahaha! I'm not sure when they will start lol or when I feel like starting actually. But they're coming! And they're pretty good considering I wasn't thrilled with our photographer.

My Mom, The Hero

Today is my wonderful mama's birthday! Here's my wonderful mama [and dad] back in the beginning of the 80s!



This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my mom! Her style is so amazing and this picture sums it up perfectly! She loved her curves [and taught me to love mine as well] and she loved showing them off. I've been searching EVERYWHERE for a shirt like the one she's wearing [it seems to be green and black stripes] And the glasses! lol i LOVE those glasses! AND I love the hair! I remember when I was younger my moms hair was HUUUUUGE! Now she straightens it :( lol i miss my mama's fro!

So happy birthday to my hero. My romodel. The woman I hope to be one day. My mama.

I LOVE YOU MAMA!

Monday Night Date Night

Monday night was spent at Baumgarts. Jose had never been, I'd been once in 2007. It was a trip well worth it. Their food is so good [lots and lots of Asian] and the scenery is fabulous too [notice New York City behind Jose??] After dinner and beer, we enjoyed a little walk. Ahhh... married life is good.

I have noticed Jose is alot more down for going out and doing things, being alot more productive during his days NOW that we are married then when we weren't. But... it's only been almost a month lol I might be talking too soon!

Mama, I Love You!

My mom is my life.

 I can not explain how this statement is beyond what I'm saying. My mom means the world to me and I don't know what I'd be without her. My mom is my hero and my role model. She's gone through so much negative shit in her life [with herself and my family] and yet she's the most positive and upbeat person I've ever met. She has MS and with only one good knee, it sure as help don't stop her from traveling everywhere she wants to go. I hope to be the mother my mother is to me.

OKay! So now that that's out of the way... let me explain what that was all about. My mom basically covered our entire wedding. We were shocked at how much she gave us and she gave us the money that she would have used to fix some rooms up in her house. So we decided we wanted to take care of the first one she wanted to do. Her Dining Room. She hates her dining room so much - she dreams people coming over! We told her about a month before the wedding we'd completely do it over for her and buy everything and pay for everything. She was shocked and sooo happy. But there was a catch! She couldn't see ANYTHING. :D

She doesn't know the paint color, she doesn't know what any furniture will look like... and she's nervous! lol I don't blame her but at the same time, my mom and I are like the EXACT same person. My mom completely trusted me with this project and I KNOW after buying everything last weekend with Jose, she will LOVE this room! So here's my little room board I made of what exactly we're doing.

The point of this is to show my mom you can have a beautiful room completely spankin new for under $2,000 [which was our set budget AND we're under! what!?] and that it can be done with most rooms. Most of this furniture is from IKEA. One, because it's cheap. Two, because it all really did fit the "vision" I had for this room. And it'll tie in well with the living room right next to it. On Saturday we start fixing it [and we have TWO DAYS!! AND the pressure is on cos my moms having family over on monday for MEMORIAL DAY!!!]

did I mention this is a birthday gift for her, which is on FRIDAY!! WOO WOO! So we shall see what happens :) But let me show you the befores so you REALLY know what I'm dealing with!

BLAH! Everything here is just BLAH!

[The only thing staying from this room is the piano!]

[the messiest corner in this house... it's been like this for YEARS!!]

[the second messiest]

[looking into nice looking living room]

Does ANY of it make sense?? No!! lol I don't know why it's been like this for so long but hellll no! I made my mom go through all of this shit this weekend and Jose's car is now FULL of shit that we have to bring to goodwill. I'm so proud of her for not being a dining room hoarder anymore :)

Another Weekend

My weekend sucked since I worked the entire time so I'll leave with my highlights :) And Hey! We survived... whatever the hell we were supposed to "rapture" from.

[Spa party enjoyed with wine and reading about Breaking Dawn]

[my girl Wendy rockin' the Lucha Libre mask we got her fiance from Mexico]

[burgers and blue moons enjoyed at Zinburger]

[It's my hitch in a box! My hitch in a box yeaaah!]

Hitch goes in lots of boxes... so everytime he's in a box I sing my own version of "Dick in a  Box".



It's Purple! You're Aura's Purple!

The minute I saw this picture on Brooklyn Blonde's blog... I knew I made a good purchase.

No... not the loubs. Not yet at least. The clutch. It's from Curly in the City and I just got mine in today. And it is fricken awesome.

I went straight for the purple one. Purple has been my mother's signature color for years... and I've realized that lately I'm starting to gravitate towards it alot more.

And she sends a cute little note lol. It's PURPLE! It's gorgeous and it's HUGE too. I'm dying to go out and rock it now. 

And when I'm NOT using it... it's going to it's new home. The new home for all my other clutches as well.

Oh yes. Makes me so happy. And that's just clutches. Notice how many more purple clutches there are than other ones? Okay only two... but now, THREE! :)

Get in my Photo Booth!

The BIG hit of the night at our wedding was our Photobooth. People were hitting that shit up ALL night. I wish I hit it up more but there just wasn't enough time!! We got in right before it closed [if our photographer didn't remind me, I probably wouldn't have gone it at all!]

The best part was going thru all the photos the next day. We were cracking up. So I'm just going to share a bunch of our favorites... and for future brides to be, GET A PHOTOBOOTH! I don't regret spending that money at all! It's the best investment! [Oh and we made all our photo booth props ourselves! that was a labor of love]

(two of our next couple friends to be married!)

(jose got in with his band and got some awesome shots. and my brother in law and sister in in law)

(my brother and sisters and their families were in the photo booth ALL night!)

(so was my niece and her boyfriend! lol)

(top left: joses mom and her friends; top right: joses family goofing off; bottom: three of my best lady friends)

I wish you could get photobooths for every occasion in your life! So I initially was going to put all of the photobooth pictures in a scrapbook... but I almost wanna display some of them on our gallery wall we are soon updating. Sort of like how John and Sherry did. Can you spot their photobooth pictures?

I'm in a New York State of Mind

While I'm waiting for my pro pics and I'm deciding exactly how to review our amazing wedding - I did wanna show you some photos I took the morning after my Bachelorette Party. I touched on my Bachelorette Party real quick cos there wasn't much to it! Just dinnner and dancing :) Here I am with my fabulous sister in law [and best friend]

 The next morning was Easter Sunday. We came home at about 4:30 AM and were in no mood to get up for Easter Breakfast [or brunch] so after we got room service we decided to go walk around New York City. It was the most gorgeous Easter Sunday. It was so beautiful out. I couldn't resist taking pictures of only New York that morning [since we all looked like shit]

The hotel we stayed at was 70 Park Avenue [actually located at 38th street and Park Avenue]. It was sooo nice! I'd stay there again in a minute. For what? I dont know but I would!

 The inside was very hard for me to photograph for some reason but it was so chic. They had beverages out by the door which really helped on that day since it was HOT out!

 The inside of our room was sooo nice too. I didn't snap too many pictures though. I only got this one of the nightstand I was in love with but look very closely and you'll spot the sequined and shiny pillows on both beds that I tried to stick in my suitcase.

We walked EVERYWHERE that morning [at least it felt like it]. So I snapped away. I took a picture of the Empire State Building for the millionth time. And we ALMOST went up to the top [something I STILL havent done] but when we saw the line around the block we stopped that idea real quick.

Park Avenue is absolutely gorgeous because right down the middle of it they have rows of trees. And the trees we saw were in beautiful colors of greens and pinks.

And there were even tulips blossomed in front of the trees

Oh how I'd move to New York in a heartbeat. If only it weren't so expensive...



Every time I look through my photos of New York City I've taken over the years I can't help but play New York State of Mind by Billy Joel [literally... on my iTunes] I've been to alot of big cities. But there really is nothing like New York.

There's no place I'd rather be now

Our honeymoon was amazing. I still can't believe it's over. I look at these pictures and it feels like it was so long ago...

I got sooo tan. Tanner than I've ever been in my life. My "all white" outfit showed off my tan really good. 

I did alot of reading too. I ran out and bough the new "Carrie Diaries" book just in time for the honeymoon and it's great. Way better than the Carrie Diaries was.

We had alot of fun doing photo ops of movies that reminded us of things we saw on our honeymoon. Like... if you can tell me where this photo is inspired from you're the shit.

The entire trip was spent with me admiring Day of the Dead things. I LOVE day of the dead shit... probably because it's all alot like Nightmare before Christmas and we all know how obsessed I am with that... right?

We thought we'd be completely detached from home life but turns out... we were able to watch every Mets game while away! Obsessed much?

 My little camera, after many days in the sun, couldn't take the heat anymore... literally. The last night of our trip all my photos turned out foggy from how "humid" it was. I swear, I hate my point and shoot now that I have my DSLR.

 But one good thing [for me] is alot of our trip was spent teaching Jose how to use the camera in a basic manual mode. I'm so proud of him! He spent LOTS of time fucking around with it and seems to have the shutter speed and ISO down! lol



I'd go back in a heartbeat. In fact... we agreed every year we should take some sort of tropical vacation. It's good for the soul!