~Amber's Bridal Shower~

I have a friend, named Amber that I go way back with. She and I met by chance in Elementary school. I was walking home from the bus stop (at 8 years old), fell and split my knee open on a rock. Her grandma came out and "saved me", cleaned me up and proceeded to tell me that her granddaughter would be coming to visit. Within that year Amber was at her grandma's to stay. We were inseparable from that point on. We were the only kids our age in the neighborhood. We played together, babysat together and had many birthday parties with just the two of us so that we could go on more “expensive birthday adventures” like Kings Island, the Zoo and more.

On September 19th Amber and her fiancé are getting married. She and John have two beautiful little boys and another baby on the way. I wanted so badly to be the one to throw her a Bridal Shower. Some how I pulled it off as a Surprise. I asked every woman that was friends with Amber on Facebook if they could make it and if they would I sent them a little pink invite.
The invite read:

Amber’s SURPRISE Bridal Shower
An Ice Cream Sundae Social

Friday, September 11th 2009
At MCL Cafeteria
60 Westerville Square
Westerville, OH 43081
Phone: 614-818-1700

6:30pm Time for You to Arrive
7:00pm Amber Arrives

I told Amber that I was having a Girls Night Out! I even sent her a little “Girls Night Out” post card to save the date. When she gets to my house, I will tell her that the other girls canceled but we could still go out together. I will just drive to MCL. She’ll be so surprised when she sees everyone there, in the banquet hall! MCL said that they would prefer that at least 20 of the 40+ people order food. You may come hungry, either way we will still have an Ice Cream Sundae Bar.

Amber and John have not registered so we will have a theme for gifts. Please bring either an ornament for their “First Year Married Christmas Tree” or a picture frame for them to use in their home!

If you would like to make an 8 ½ x 11 Scrapbook Page for Amber, please do so. Here are some ideas for pages.
-Pictures of the both of you and such.
-Thoughts of inspiration for the newly married gal.
-Recipe or recipes.
-Get creative!

Meredith Feisel (614) 406-5005

Amber was so confused when we pulled into MCL. I ended up telling her that one of the girls going out with us, needed to be picked up. Her husband dropped her off at work and we needed to pick her up, then we would be off to the movies! I had a lot of help from tow of Amber’s friends. They were both so very sweet. We had never met before and they helped purchase things for the Shower and were there early to set up! My mom was also a big help playing hostess until I got back with Amber. When we got there Amber got some ice cream and it was on to games. Two of the games brought many, many laughs. After the games, we had her opened her gifts. She thought it was such a good idea to have them themed. Everyone did such an amazing job picking out frames and ornaments. It truly was a perfect evening.

~Quick Prayer~

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

~Labor Day Wknd~

It was great to have the cousin’s in town for Labor Day weekend. It was so relaxing for Tommy and me to take a couple of days and do nothing, but what we wanted to do. Although the weekend really started Friday night before they got into town. My mom's friend Valerie gave me an 1980's vintage dress that she wore to one of her high school dances. I have been waiting for a place to wear it. When I heard what I was going to be up to Friday night, I fixed it up, wore my new Steve Madden Shoes and bought a bracelet at Forever 21 that would tie everything together! Here's the before and after of the sleeve of the dress, the bracelet and the shoes!




On Friday night I went to Christy’s Bachelorette Party. We started at Buca di Beppo. Our waiter was amazing for the table of ladies that we were! Christy got surprised from him left and right. He brought out a surprise entrée, two shots and a cute cupcake for dessert, with candles & of course other wait staff to sing, Going to the Chapel. One of the other girls who worked there asked us to all get up and go over to the other Bachelorette and sing Going to the Chapel to her and her friends. It was quite fun. Thank goodness we all knew the words.

We moved onto The Big Bang after that. Also, our waiter found out we were going to The Big Bang and gave us tickets to get in for FREE. None of us paid to get in, it was great!




On Saturday morning Tommy and I left to go to Geneva Hills, Ohio to shoot a wedding. Not just for anyone but for Alisha & Brian. Alisha and Tommy met at Heritage Church last year. She called New Age Foto to hire us to update Heritage’s Photography of the staff and such. Since then she has been working for New Age Foto. We love both Brian & Alisha so much. I did her make up when I got there and of course we shot the wedding. Their Cake Topper was so them!

It was so beautiful. I am sure that Tommy will have photos up on the blog next week. It was also fun for me to go to the wedding because over the last few months I have gotten to know some of her friends. It was great seeing them all again at the wedding. We will be doing a shoot of one for her bridesmaid’s (and her husband) soon. Can’t wait!

When we got into Columbus, we unloaded the truck, changed and went over to my parent’s house to pick up my cousins. They had gotten into town Saturday morning. We all plied in the truck and brought them over to our house to see it, they had not been before. Jackson was so happy to meet them all. It did fairly well with all that was going on between new people in the house, a tour of our home, wine glasses out and all the fun we were having! Although he did lick Mikes face a lot and jump on him quite a few times. After an hour or so we were off to Easton to Shadowbox. The cousin’s had never been there and my friend Andy performs. The show was called Bad to the Bone. We slit some apps and a pizza all ordered some drinks and had two hours for laughing at comedy sketches, listing to rock & roll hits preformed and enjoying each others company.

On Sunday we met back up at my parent’s house for a big cookout with the family. Daddy made pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon. It was so good. He also made a potato salad, pepper salad and tomato salad, all from an Arizona cookbook I bought him for his birthday. He spends time in AZ, usually, once a year and I thought he would enjoy it. We all sure enjoy reaping the benefits of it! In the evening we went to a Clippers game with everyone. They Won!!! Did you hear that, we won! Great way to end a season!


On Monday we all hung out at the house. Finished up the NEW! 1st Annual Dart Tournament at the Stohrer's. Tommy Won the I.D.I.O.T. (Indian's Dart In Ohio Tournament) Trophy! We also have the C.R.A.P Trophy for Pool at Aunt Luann's. It was almost called the S.H.I.T. but got vetoed! I was runner up for the I.D.I.O.T.!

It was such a great weekend!

~Glee~

Tommy and I are so excited for Glee to start! The Pilot was show back in May. We have been waiting months to see how the season continues. It's brought to us from the creator of Nip/Tuck. Although, I have never seen it, it's supposed to be a really popular show. Tommy and I already have our predictions of what is to come... can not wait to see if we are right. Check Glee out on FOX.

~The Cast of Glee~

~From Hair to Photos~

Today was another long work day with an excited ending. I did a New Age Foto shoot for my friend (and hair stylist) Aubrie and her family. Her bother is moving soon and they wanted to get a family session done before we left. I have met Aubrie’s mother on several occasions, she is such a doll, love her. We met downtown Gahanna at Creekside, It’s a great place to shoot.

~Auntiquing in Waynesville~

Mom, Jill and I planned at Trip to Waynesville over a month ago. It's about two hours away. Jill heard from a friend at work that it would be a great place to go. WVille is filled with block after blog of old country type shops and antique shops. Check out their website for more! We piled in the SUV and off we went.

We had been looking for print press drawers for some time. They are easy to find by but they are always over priced. I am not paying $30 - $45 for an old drawer! At one of the antique shops there where a bunch of drawers along a wall. A lot of the them were priced around $25 and a couple of them in the back were $7 and then, 25% off because it was the owners 25th anniversary at that shop. Wow! Jill and I each got one. How cool! Down the road I will tell you why I got it! It's a secret for now. Also, Jill found some great necklaces for her girls and some horse decor for Audrey, who does Horse Therapy and is getting a new room when they move in February.

~Welcome~

~It's Sad But True~

~I have always wanted one of these just 3x as wide~
~We had a wonderfull lunch out on the patio~
~Yeah for an Ice Cream Pit Stop, on the way out of town~
~Where we stopped~
~Fun Sign outside of the Dairy Corner~
~Another One~
~Me and mom after we got home~
~Brooke came out to give us hugs and see what we got!~

~Family, Friends & Fun~

Tommy set up the studio for a lifestyles session of a little baby named Eli. He is an offical NAF(NewAgeFoto) baby! We photographed his mommy and daddy's wedding, maternity session, when he was born and this past week. All of the pictures are great! There will be a video posted soon of all that we have done for his family. Anywho, Jackson took over...

We got him to move... but still... on to Tommy's shoes.

Tommy was very sweet to me by bringing me lunch at Archivers last week. I had not srpabooked at lot this summer because we have been so busy with NAF (NewAgeFoto). Tommy let me go early to scrap and called me not long after I was there to ask if he could bring us a meal to split. I said, "Sure!" We ate together out of our brown paper bags and fisihed, each, with a Little Debbie dessert.


I went to Alisha's Surprise Bridal Shower. I had such a good time. One of the gift ideas was to make Alisha a 8x10 scrapbook page of Pearls of Wisdom. A recipe, thoughts on marriage and/or scrap some pictures. Tommy helped me by making a page of the four of us (Tommy, Me, Brian & Alisha) when we were out on night. We went to see an outdoor movie at Easton and Tommy made burgers for us to eat while we were there... Napa Vally Basil Smoke Burgers to be exact. He put on the scrap page a pic of us all eating them and then the recipe of course. Alisha loved it. I also passed out gifts at the shower and did well at one of the games we all played. Brian's mom gave us all ornaments for favors! Perfect for me... I LOVE ORNAMENTS.

Tommy took me to the driving range. I had not gone in a long time, even then... I was not good. He taught me well... I hit a ball over 75 yards! lol. At least he looked good out there.

~Remembering Grandpa~

My Grandpa (my mom's daddy) Fred's birthday would have been September 1st. He passed when I was in High School a week before Prom. I was his ONLY grandchild. My mom's mom passed before I was born. Grandpa remarried when I was 2 years old to an amazing grandma named Brenda. Now she had 3 children, many grandchildren and even a few great grandchildren. So you can image how close grandpa and I were and how close he was with my mom. He was of of the two most amazing men I have ever known.

Mom and I decided to go out for the afternoon in memory of him. We stopped by Allie Beads and brought some things to fix a belt that mom has. After that we went to MCL Cafeteria. Yes, the cafeteria for "older people" but I find such an amazing over flow of memories, come to mind, the moment I walked in the door. Granted my mom was the second youngest in the place, still. Mom ordered what Grandpa would have had, Chicken Noodle soup over mashed potatoes and I ordered the same things that I ordered for years. Although I added some Chicken Cordon Blu. Mostly because what I ordered as a kid, is not much of a meal. When we got to the end of the line (to pay) we asked if they were sold out of their famous cinnamon rolls. The lady replied, "Of course not, we keep them in here so that the don't get dry at all under the heating lamps!" Mom and I split it! Tasted better than ever!

We spent the entire time talking back and fourth, practically listing, memory after memory of times we spent with Grandpa, things he used to always do, things he used to always say and then mom shared things she had never shared about him before. War. It was an incredible lunch date with mom, one that I will NEVER forget.

~Us at Allie Beads~

~Us Outside of MCL to Celebrate~

~The Meal I Always Got + Chicken~