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Guys! Its week TWO of ! Posts! I love them so much!

Last Sunday, John and I went to the bar in our neighborhood to start planning for our West Coast trip in October with Becca and Shannon! We are going to Seattle, Portland, the Redwood National Forrest and San Francisco! We are so excited! That is my Emily Ley planner that I bought for myself! I love it so much!

Its Spring in our living room! I may have worn my Uggs to work three days this week but I have sparkle eggs and flowers and Dilly got new cat grass, goddammit!

I filled out my very first March Madness bracket this week! This one was for fake (read: no money) but I made a real one on CBSsports.com and have Wichita State winning the whole thing! Is this a possible outcome?! I don't know!

On Thursday night I finally saw Frozen! In Teress' movie theater which is in her apartment building! It was the best movie viewing experience I've ever had and holy crap was Frozen adorable!

Yesterday was the first day of Spring! And to celebrate I got an iced coffe on my way to work! At the new bagel place that opened at 5th Avenue and 10th Street! And it was only $1.75! At Bagel Pub its more than $3.00! Bagel Pub, you have been put on notice!

Have a very happy weekend! I am going to my first SoulCycle class tomorrow wish me luck! I hope I don't die!

Rehearsal DINNER

I loved our Rehearsal Dinner. Loved it. Loved it so much that if it had been our actual wedding, I would have been absolutely fine with it. While we were practicing at the Church, I thought to myself  "This is the  happiest I have ever been." And then we got to the restaurant and everyone was sitting down at tables and eating and laughing and I couldn't help but think that I was the happiest, luckiest person in the world.

And then about 40 minutes into appetizers, Jay got there.

BACK STORY: Jay is the reason John and I met. We knew we wanted him to be in the bridal party from the second we got engaged in the house he and John shared with friends, but he's literally on tour with a rock band. Jared Leto's rock band, to be precise. So we basically planned this entire wedding assuming he couldn't come.

Then about 7 weeks before the wedding, I accidentally ran into Jay at my favorite Sushi place in the Village (seriously) where he happened to have a 8 hour layover before getting on a plane back to Europe. "So listen, about the wedding..." he said "I know, you can't make it. Its fine, you're schedule is nuts!". "No, I'm pretty sure I can come!" I nearly died. And I called John and he didn't believe me, so then he called Jay (who at this point was on the plane) and Jay confirmed. He could probably come to the wedding.

So Jay got measured for his tuxedo in Europe and sent John his measurements. John reserved his tux and we prayed that the pants wouldn't be too short or the shoes too small. But really, I went on thinking that he wasn't coming. Because did I mention he works for a rock band and their schedules are super serious?

Well the day of the rehearsal dinner came and his flight from Germany was delayed. And he was definitely going to miss the Rehearsal and we weren't even sure if he was going to make it in time for the ceremony or the reception. And I thought to myself "Its fine, I didn't even think he was coming. Its not his fault the flight is delayed, we will see him the next time he's in the States". But then no one heard from him for about seven hours. And I kind of forgot about it because it was the day before the wedding and I was kind of freaking out.

But then about 40 minutes into appetizers, Jay got there. And he walked right in and my back was to the door and I heard someone say "Look at this guy!" and John and I turned around and saw him and I burst into tears. For like the eighth time that night. Here I am in the photo below, still crying. This was a very long tangent all to say that Jay came from Europe to see us get married and it made us super happy.

And then we had dinner and John and I thanked everyone for coming. That's finally what broke John and then we were both weeping in front of our families and closest friends. SIDE NOTE: I thought that someone had a video of us talking. In this picture you can actually SEE Alyssa recording us. It appears that anyone who did record it deleted it from their phones. If you have a video, could you send it to me? Also a public service announcement: back up your phones, people. Back up your phones!

And now here are some of my other favorite pictures from that night. Seriously, it was one of the happiest nights of my life.

Jared and I have giant heads in this picture?

Pairing up Tammy and Aaron was seriously the best decision John and I ever made. She called him Karen the entire weekend. And he convinced her to eat a pad of butter by telling her it was cheese. Hilarity the entire weekend.

Boys/Former housemates.

When we graduated from college, all I wanted was a picture of me, Jay and Becca (we all met on our very first day of Orientation at Hofstra). This picture now replaces that one as my favorite.

Friends!

AND the last picture of the night thanks to Jared!

The Philadelphia Flower Show 2014

A few weeks ago was one of my FAVORITE events of the year! The Philadelphia Flower Show!  YEEP!

Once again, the snow thought it could mess with us but we once again prevailed, slipping and sliding our way to Philadelphia and then into the Convention Center. Take that winter!

The theme of this year's show was Articulture (like art + horticulture) which I wasn't thrilled with. But I think that's only because last year the theme was England and I just loved it so much. 2014 had a lot to live up to.

After seeing this contraption, I think I'm now afraid of things hanging from ceilings. Seriously how heavy must that be and I don't see nearly enough ropes/wires holding it up. Terrifying.

The Flower Show is much more enjoyable when you aren't planning a wedding, I must say. For the past two years, I've spent the entire show thinking "Pinks? Blues? Succulents? What is this flower I have never seen it before but do I want it to be a central focus in the table centerpieces". Seriously, it was the worst.

But this year I was like "Hey! Look at this giant ball of red flowers! Its so cool and I have no event that I want it to be at!" It was wonderful.

I loved everything about this landscape. Would a chest of drawers filled with plants be super weird to have in my living room? Or just a little weird?

This year, we even watched a full segment in the Designer's Studio. In our defense, we originally sat down to have a soft pretzel (I was starving after our harrowing journey in the snow) and then we got totally roped into this competition among these three floral designers. It was like Top Chef but with flowers and less sweating. I loved it!

Isn't this incredible? I especially liked this one because the person took the time to make nice number signs.

This bonsai tree is as old as I am! Isn't that crazy? CRAZIER is that next to this one, there was a 100 year old bonsai tree. Could you imagine having a relative die and then being responsible for the bonsai tree they raised for 70 years? That is an immense amount of pressure.

Future blog posts about the flower show will include me and my Mom in a photobooth and the return of miniature landscape design. I KNOW! I nearly burst into tears when I saw the miniatures this year I was so happy!

Life Lately According to My iPhone

Morning coffee run before Becca's move on Saturday morning. I also ate an egg sandwich on an English muffin because it makes her nervous when I don't eat breakfast.

Burritos and a million margaritas to celebrate Jared's birthday. Not pictured: John picking me up in our car from the subway station upon my return to Brooklyn. Thanks, babe.

New breakfast find thanks to Teress. Kolache Co at 520 DeKalb Avenue. All sorts of delicious.

This is Sapphire. She was at the event that I worked on Sunday afternoon and holy crap did I want to take her home. Luckily, a handsome man adopted her! Byeeee Sapphire, I hope your new dad gives you a better name!

!

A few days ago, a blog I read did a post titled "!". It was all about being happy and frankly, I loved it. I also loved that everything ended in !

I sometimes feel that I use ! too much on this blog. Things here aren't terribly serious,  but sometimes ! gets thrown at the end of a sentence where maybe there should just be a .

But its Friday, so here we go. Everything is ending in happiness and ! and I hope you love it! (I love it already!)

My sister got into graduate school yesterday! Where she will work in a hospital! And dissect a human cadaver! That is so gross but we are so proud of her!

On Monday after work, Teress and I went to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio! We bought yarn for baby blankets for our friends and these adorable tape measures! I thought the tape measures cost $22 but when I looked at my receipt I realized the the yarn cost more than I thought it did! I love this tape measure and so does Dilly!

On Tuesday night they filmed an episode of Blue Bloods (which I watch occasionally with my Mom and Alyssa) near work! And on Wednesday morning they were still filming! And there was a prop cop car! I did not see Tom Selleck (or his mustache) but it was still pretty exciting!

On Tuesday morning it was so warm that Bagel Pub had a special iced coffee sign! I gave up bagels for Lent though and am attempting to not buy coffee, so it was kind of a let down!

Dinner with friends on a Tuesday is so fun! And so is frozen yogurt that looks like it is for children! I really like cherries!

Mystery water strikes again at 14th Street! Seriously where did it come from and why is there so much of it?! (! included with ?)!

Happy Friday, Happy Weekend! I hope its filled with lots of ! 

On Missing Mim

Its been about six weeks since we put Mim to sleep. I thought it might be time to talk a little bit about what happened, why we made the decision we did and how we're dealing with missing her.

When we first adopted Mim we had every idea that she would live a long, happy life with us. We knew that it would be a wobbly life, because of what we then thought was her Cerebellar Hypoplasia, but we thought that we would have her for a long time. It became obvious to us after about four months of adopting her that something was very wrong, and that she was a road of deterioration that we weren't able to stop.

We took her to a feline neurologist (Blue Pearl Veterinary in Brooklyn, who we would absolutely recommend) in December and the vet put her on a course of steroids and physical therapy at home with us. We took her back in late January and the vet said that while she had gained some strength from the steroids, they were dangerous for her and the strength she had would vanish once we took her off of them. Dr. Williams said that while we didn't need to think about putting Mim to sleep immediately, it was something we needed to prepare ourselves for. She was still happy, she said.

One of the last pictures I have her her. She looks so cozy! 

On February 6th I came home from work and fed Mim. I ate dinner, I gave her an egg yolk (something that was recommended to give her some extra protein) and then gave her a bath since she had gotten a little dirty during the day. I took her out of the sink, and put her on her yellow towel. I turned around for three seconds and when I turned back around, I saw that she had an accident and that there was blood.

I dried her off as much as I could, wrapped her up in her carrier and ran out the door and to our usual vet, which is thankfully open until midnight (Animal Kind on 7th Avenue who we would also recommend). The vet took one look at her (and her medical records) and told me that she had a bladder infection because she wasn't emptying her bladder all the way because of her condition. She told me we would have to start manually emptying her bladder and that was it, I knew. John was still at work so I called him and I called my parents. John couldn't leave work for about an hour because he still had students with him so I called Shannon who came straight there from the city.

The vet put us in a room downstairs that was kind of crazy but none the less cozy, and me and Shannon sat with her until Becca and John got there. When it was time, Becca and Shannon went upstairs and we stayed with Mim. We held her and cried  and told her how much we loved her and how much we would miss her. When it was over I kissed her goodbye and we went home to an emptier house.

We absolutely knew that we made the right decision, but that didn't make it any less hard. All the vets we saw with Mim told us we would know when the time was, and for us, it was that night. She had dealt with so much: not being able to walk, weakness, not being able to use the litterbox anymore. Keeping her alive and having to manually empty her bladder would have been selfish and we knew it wasn't the life she deserved.

But oh were we sad. We're still sad. On Sunday afternoon, John and I picked up her ashes. If you had told me a year ago that I would be someone who would have their cat cremated I would have told you you were insane. But here we are. They made us an imprint of her paw and she's in a lovely tin that I think we'll upgrade sometime soon. She's on the bookshelf behind the big green chair where I held her every night for almost a year.

We miss her terribly and can't thank all of you enough for your kind words over the past month.

Did You Know You Can Get Pictures Off a Camera And Our Rehearsal

Friends! I recently figured out how to get all the pictures off my Mom's Cannon G12 Camera AND Tammy put up the pictures she took at our wedding. Both of these things mean that you should really brace yourselves because there are going to be some picture heavy/wedding heavy blog posts coming your way.

I KNOW we've been married four months, but how many times do you get to blog your own wedding? The answer to that questions is hopefully only once.

Today's post will be focusing on the Rehearsal part of our Rehearsal Dinner. The Dinner will be a different post because seriously the amount of pictures is going to be obscene.

First of all, I really recommend that you wear false eyelashes for the entirety of your wedding weekend. Alyssa says that you want them to be a little bit understated the day of your wedding, so I say for your Rehearsal Dinner, you really just go all out. Go to CVS (there is no reason to spend any more than $7.00 on a pair of false eyelashes) and find the biggest pair you can find. Smack those on your face and you will feel like a million bucks. Also, be sure to take pictures with your puppy before you leave. And also your parents.

While the Legnettis were yucking it up in our kitchen and alternately screaming and reapplying lipstick (not my Dad on either accounts) my friends were already at the church. I love my friends more than anything, but I will be the first one to tell you that they are the latest group in the history of the world. Just the worst. So I might have told them that the Rehearsal started 45 minutes before it did. Here they are walking into the church in the daylight. By the time we got there it was dark!

Before you look at the next picture, I want you to know that I was not a crazy Bridezilla who told everyone they needed to wear black. As we all started taking off our coats, you could hear "I'm wearing black, too!" and before we knew it, we all matched.

I felt pretty regular the entire day before the wedding until everyone started showing up at the church. As I said hello to everyone I thought to myself "Holy crap how am I ever going to get through this weekend without crying the entire time?" The answer to that question is that I basically cried the entire weekend. You've been warned.

Our Priest, Father Chris (who I knew from high school) arrived and then we got to practicing! He had left the list we had made about bridal party pairings in his office so he, John and I stood in the back of the lobby basically yelling at each other "Aaron? Bridget?" "I think Aaon was with Becca? Or was it Tammy? Jay is still at the airport so Becca is going to walk in alone, WHO DID WE SAY DAVE WAS WALKING WITH?" We finally figured it out and off we went.

I LOVED my practice bouquet. Its made of all the bows and ribbons from my shower gifts and I swear I would have used it the day of the wedding but we had already spent all that money on a florist. Engaged women I say to you: do not let your bridesmaids put you in a bow/ribbon hat at your bridal shower! Hire my cousin Bridget to make you a bouquet like this one! Bridget is a teacher but I think she missed her calling with bows and ribbons.

Here I am crying.
John: "Babe, why are you crying?"
Me: "I'm just so happy, aren't you so happy?"
John: "Yeah, but that's why I'm not crying"

Alexander practiced carrying rings and Mickey and Jack practiced their readings. Alyssa practiced fixing my dress and John and I practiced our first kiss which we had spoken about extensively prior because it is so much pressure.

Before I got married I was one of those people who thought "Pssshh, why do you need to practice? You just walk in and get married!". Having now been through it I will say that everyone should practice. I don't even think you need a dinner after, but seriously you need to get your jitters out. John and I were also the first of our friends to get married, so we were a bridal party full of wedding virgins and I it could have been a messy situation had we not practiced the night before.

We also practiced our receiving line. Look how serious we all look! My Dad is like "How many people do we have to kiss hello?" I also love the mural of Jesus behind us (hahaha!).

Here are some of my other favorite pictures from that night:

Two of these three are as tall as me and the third one is coming up quick.

This is a pretty accurate representation of how I felt that night! Also, seriously look at the bouquet!

Me with Becca and Jared before we started. I made Jared sing all of Ave Maria at the rehearsal even though Father Chris said we didn't need to practice it. I pulled the bride card and said I wanted to hear it...all of it. I love Ave Maria and I love it even more when Jared sings it.

I love this picture for so many reasons. First its my two favorite men in the world. Second, they are wearing super similar outfits. You'd be surprised at how much this happens in our family because my Mom is basically in charge of both of their wardrobes. See that sweater John is wearing? My Mom picked it out.

And THIS is my favorite picture of me and John ever. Ever, ever, ever. We could have gotten no pictures the rest of the weekend and I would have been happy.

UP NEXT: Rehearsal DINNER! Get ready!

The Weekend According to My iPhone

Guys this is what my desk looked like on Friday. I was so unhappy about it.

On Saturday, Becca and I did a million errands which included seeing her and Shannon's new apartment. Which, did I mention is a block from us? Seriously a block. To say we are excited would be an understatement (I think Shannon is mostly excited to be so close to our barbecue, our backyard and Dilly but that's OK).

We also got our nails done, went out to lunch AND to Trader Joe's. The Trader Joe's trip wasn't particularly successful because they ran out of sunflower seeds in shells. RAN OUT OF THEM. People of Brooklyn, how many sunflower seeds are you eating?

And then we got Shamrock Shakes. A word of advice: do not mention Shamrock Shakes to Becca unless you intend to actually get them. She means business.

Saturday night included board games with John and his siblings which I did not win. I never win, its really the worst.

Yesterday was a lovely brunch with Alyssa and our cousins and then whoops I took a two and a half hour nap in our living room with the sun shining into our window (I love you daylight savings). I don't have any pictures because, you know...nap.

Happy Monday!