Another action-packed weekend!

First things first - our engagement photo session was awesome! This lovely work of art is just one of the 167 shots that our photographer, Jamie Roberts, took for us on Friday evening at Turf Valley. It was 70 degrees and sunny, not a cloud in the sky! We shot from about 5:45 til 6:30, so the sun was starting to come down which made for some beautiful lighting. I can't say enough about what a GREAT guy Jamie is - he made this extra trip out to Turf Valley and took all these photos for us for nothing. We had such a GREAT time shooting with him, and getting to see a little preview of his work before the wedding is so cool, and so reassuring. Not that I ever questioned what he could do - I've seen his portfolio and his work is what drew us to him in the first place - but you always wonder how YOU will look in your wedding photos. Now I know that he knows how to make us look good :) He posted a few others on Facebook which I loaded into Picasa, so if you're interested... http://picasaweb.google.com/jennarenee17/EngagementSession#

After that fun-filled beginning to our weekend, we drove out to Ikea in White Marsh in hopes of snagging some barstools that were on HEFTY sale Friday only ($40 a piece, down from $120 a piece!), but of course they were gone long before we ever got there. So we spent $300 on a dresser instead ;) I mean, we couldn't drive all the way out there for NOTHING, could we? We needed it anyway and would've bought it eventually, and now we'll have something to put in our empty-yet-beautifully-painted bedroom :) We also got a cool idea for our bed conundrum... our "bed conundrum" being the fact that we have a metal bed frame and a mattress/boxspring set, but kinda wanted to actually buy a "real" bed, but everything at Ikea requires buying the wooden slats and not using the boxspring, and the bed we like at Crate & Barrel (apart from being pricey) is a platform bed which also doesn't fit a boxspring and will wear out our mattress more quickly. So we thought we'd just get a headboard and call it good, since Ben doesn't want a footboard anyway (being 6'4" and needing his stretching space), but then I feel like, why am I spending $150 on a hunk of wood to sit behind our bed? I could almost buy a whole bed for that at Ikea. But we saw a bed on display at Ikea the other night with curtain panels hanging behind it... and I thought to myself, "there's a creative and stylish solution..." and surprisingly enough, Ben agreed! We looked around at Ikea a bit and couldn't find anything that was QUITE perfect, but I have hope for the idea itself. What we'd really like to use instead of a traditional fabric curtain panel is a few of those screen-looking window coverings that they make now with graphic designs on them. So we'll see. Sorry I still haven't posted any pics of the apartment progress. Part of me is still holding out for rooms to actually be finished and put together before the big reveal :)

As for the rest of our weekend, we left Saturday morning for Deep Creek (Oakland, super-Western Maryland, almost West Virginia... whatever you want to call it - it's about as far as you can drive from where we live and still be in MD) to visit Ben's grandmother for her 91st birthday. This time we took Frank with us (Ben's dad and her son) since he hasn't been able to go out there since before his stroke. All 5 of us (me, Ben, Frank, Em and Josh) piled into Em's Subaru Forester, which actually accommodated us all in relative comfort for the 3 hour drive. It was an emotional reunion for Frank and his mom. Physically, she's actually getting around better than he does - she still has her pantyhose and high heels on with her painted toe nails and finger nails, lipstick and jewelry. She's pretty amazing! The only way she really shows her age is in her lack of short-term memory (you have the same few conversations over and over most of the time, which is fairly typical of someone her age), but apart from that, she seems to be on top of things! We spent several hours visiting with her on Saturday, and by the time we left, Frank's three brothers were all there too - I think she really enjoyed the little "family reunion" and having all her boys together :) We left around 5 to go check into our hotel (Frank stayed at his mother's with his brother Max who had been there for the week taking care of her), and then met up with our friends the Cookes (who live out there in Frostburg) at Uno for dinner. It was SO great to see them, and their girls are just precious! Lucy is almost 2 now, and incredibly charming with her bright red pigtails and bubbly personality :) Molly is still an infant - born around the end of February - but was just a doll for the entire meal. She got a little fussy when she was hungry, but once her belly was full again, she just took in the scenery from her seat or whoever's arms she was in at the moment and visited with everyone and never made a peep! What a sweet baby :) Lucy was too funny - it took her a few minutes to warm up, but once she had gotten comfortable, she was coloring with us and sitting in our laps and jumping from person to person just playing and giggling! We had a great time - I'm so glad we got the chance to see them while we were out there. For the rest of the evening, we played poker and laughed and had a few beers in our hotel room! Good times!

Sunday morning we got up relatively early (for us anyway) and hit up Sheetz for some breakfast and coffee, and then headed over to Grandmom's to visit for a few more hours before it was time to head home. Our visit was cut a little short when Frank decided he was ready to go, and that he was going with his brother Max, so we all ended up heading out just before noon. It was nice to have a little extra space in the Subaru since Max was willing to take Frank home, and we basically napped on and off all the way back to Eldersburg, since Josh so graciously did all the driving for us :) When we got home, we got to spend some time with Ben's mom who had been in Tennessee since Easter weekend and had gotten home Saturday night while we were gone. We just relaxed and chatted and had some pizza - the usual Sunday at Ben's house :) Except we were minus Amberly and the kids, because Evan seems to be coming down with an ear infection and Amberly hasn't been feeling great either (which is why they weren't able to join us this weekend). Poor Evie had a 101 fever last we heard yesterday evening :'( Praise God that Chris is off this week and will be there to help her manage the kids! One sick baby is bad enough, but apparently Leo was starting to sniffle too. You're in my prayers!!!

Speaking of sickness, what I was desperately trying to attribute to allergies seems to be turning into something. I've just had lots of chest congestion and crackling - I can just feel the mucus rumbling around in there sometimes - and now my throat is getting sore from the coughing. And speaking of allergies, I had a TERRIBLE reaction to Ben's cat on Friday evening. On Easter I had an itchy/red/watery/swollen eyes reaction sitting out in their dining room where the cat usually hangs out, which was concerning to me since we'd like to have pets, but that was nothing compared to Friday evening. My right eye nearly swelled shut. Ugh. So I've been looking more into low-shedding or hypo-allergenic dog breeds (since I don't think there's really any such thing as a hypo-allergenic cat, aside from a hairless one... ew). I hate to give up on the bigger breeds that we love so much (Rotties, Great Danes, Pits...) but they all shed a lot and I'd REALLY hate to bring a dog home and then have to get rid of it. I'm not giving up on bigger dogs, but I really am starting to wonder if I can tolerate cats. I don't ALWAYS react to cats - I can pet our friend Ron's cats with no problem. And I usually don't react to our friend Tom's dogs either (Great Dane, Lab and Rhodesian), although I've had skin reactions to them on occasion (relatively mild hives, basically). I just don't know how to figure out what types of animals I'm going to react to. I've only just recently starting reacting to Ben's cat, and I've been hanging around his house for 9 years now! I don't know what to do. But for now, I'm thinking our idea of getting a cat after the wedding probably needs to be put on hold. Maybe we'll get a puppy after all... :)