Happy Birthday, Ashley!

It’s my baby sister’s birthday today.  Hope it’s a good one, Ash! (just for fun, an old pic of us on the beach)

filling you in.

So much has been going on this week!  I thought I’d fill you in on a few things.

1.  This weekend begins my month-of-travels. Which means that I will either have charming travel stories to entertain you with, or (possibly more likely) the blog may fall silent.  A lot.  This weekend’s adventures bring JT and I to Philadelphia for some quality time with the Ross’ – and for a meeting of the ‘rents.  Yep, that’s right.  Our parents and families will be meeting this weekend.  Kind of a big deal, right?  And, Jason’s sweet Aunt is throwing us a wedding shower!  Should be lots of fun!  I will head to Boston for a conference next Wednesday through Sunday.  The subsequent 3 weekends will find me in Milwaukee, San Francisco, and back in Milwaukee again.

2.  My friend from college, Justin, was just featured on HGTV’s Curb Appeal. And I missed it.  (Mandy!  I’m so bummed that I missed it!)  But his episode will air again in September, and I hope to catch it at my parent’s house since they have cable.  Yay cable.

3.  I’ve begun seriously church hunting. And I even talked JT into going with me, even though I’m heading out to Lutheran churches.  The past 2 weeks, I attended Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church.  My friend and bridesmaid, Sarah, introduced me to this church a few years ago – her grandfather helped build the church, and she’s gone there forever.  It’s nice, and the people are nice.  The congregation must be huge – there are 4 services and the huge church was packed at the one we went to.  So the upside is that there are a lot of resources in the church (they even have a young married people group).  The downside?  Church lasted 35 minutes, which means we spent more time driving there and back than we did actually sitting in the church.  Maybe this would be a good deal if we had fidgety kids or something, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a bit rushed.  We (I?) plan to check out a church a few blocks away when the month-of-travels is over.

4.  Monday was my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!  I swear, I’m definitely not cutting your hair in this picture.  And even if I was, how would you know?

Weddings That I’ve Been To, Day 5

Cripes. I have been to A LOT of weddings. I hope a lot of people will show up at MY wedding. Because we all know that the BEST part of the wedding (you know, besides the actual getting married part) is getting to spend time with ALL of your most favorite people at the same time. Anyways, on to today’s weddings:

Wedding #17: Phil and Nicki. Phil is one of Jason’s high school buddies, and he’ll be one of Jason’s groomsmen in October. Phil and Nicki’s wedding and reception was held in a greenhouse in Philly in the middle of January! It was a great weekend and a beautiful location for a wedding/reception! And, they had a string quartet that played Coldplay songs. They also included some Filipino traditions in the ceremony, since Phil is the filipino from Philly. Super-awesome. We originally were leaning towards a winter wedding, but faced objections concerns from those that would be coming in from out of town. So, October, it is!

Anyways, here’s a shot of JT and I with the bride and groom:

Jason and his high school buddies. We’re hoping these guys will make it to our wedding, even if they don’t know where Milwaukee is or why anyone would want to get married there.

Awesome friend Andrea and I. Conveniently, Andrea married Phil’s brother, Jeff, (more on that wedding soon), so they were at the wedding, too! (PS look who, once again, has a drink in her hand. yikes.)

Wedding #18: Kitty and Mikey. Alright, Katie and Mike. Katie Kitty is, according to a valentine’s day scantron that we took junior year of high school, meant to be my best friend. So every time we see each other, we yell “best friend!” and giggle. Anyways, these crazy kids got married in Chicago, so we got to visit yet another fantastic city on our weddings-across-America tour. Here’s a shot of Jason and I on our way to the reception. (I made someone on the street take our photo, yet another time when Jason just rolled his eyes at me and played along). Yay for downtown Chicago!

Christina, Kitty, and I. Isn’t Kitty gorgeous in all of her wedding get up?

The whole clan of high school girls (from left to right): Christina, Nicki, Kitty, Amanda, Emily, Me, and Carrie. After this photo, we danced, talked, and ate some seriously amazing desserts (yay for the late-night dessert table!). (Eeek! I just remembered that I forgot to list Carrie’s wedding, which was during my college years… Carrie and Chris had an awesome and truly original wedding at the Madison zoo… after their vows, we got to walk around the zoo and say hi to the animals!).

Wedding #19: Stacy and Sean. Unfortunately, no pictures of this one! I must have either forgotten my camera or forgotten to charge the battery. Anyways, I will give you a little description: Stacy and Sean got married in Minnesota (yay for no traveling to this one!), just North of Minneapolis. Their reception was in a tent, which is a super-fun idea when it’s the middle of summer in Minnesota because our summers here are FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, they got married 2 weeks before I defended my dissertation and JT and I ended up leaving a little early!

Wedding #20: Jeff and Andrea. Jeff and Jason went to high school together (Jeff is Phil-from-wedding-#17’s brother), and they both moved to MN the same week. For a girl! But let me tell you, Andrea was totally worth the move because she is one of the most super-awesome people I have ever met. She asked me to be her wingman, which basically meant that I got to hang out with her and the bridemaids for the day! Yay! We started off with a girls-only sleepover the night before the wedding (I plan on also doing this. Why? Because it is just so much fun.) We hung out all day the next day, getting hair done (Andrea and the Bridesmaids) and makeup put on and all that fun stuff.

Then! Wedding time! The ceremony was beautiful, with all of the filipino traditions that Phil and Nicki included in their ceremony. The reception was held in downtown Minneapolis and it was gorgeous. The food was delish! We danced all night! I only snapped a few photos, though…

Here’s JT and I:

The gorgeous bride and I:

Check out this shot of JT… can you say “drunken phone call to a taxi driver to ask why he wasn’t picking us up yet?” (which is ridiculous in light of the fact that we had not yet called ANY taxi company).

Wedding #21: Sarah and Adam. Sarah was my roommate sophomore year of college, my teammate on the ski team, and my labmate when I was in grad school. So I was really thrilled when she asked me to be a bridesmaid, and she’s going to be one of my bridesmaids in October!! Like J, Jeff, and Phil, Adam is another Philly native. They got married in Minneapolis at the end of December 2006, but unfortunately, we lived in Kentucky at the time. Oh well, it was worth the travel! Such a beautiful wedding… Here’s a shot of Sarah getting her hair done.

Sarah and Adam during their reception at the Minneapolis Country Club.

Me with the beautiful bride!

Sarah and I breaking it down. My dance moves do not look very impressive in still photos. (Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure they’re very impressive in real life).

The obligatory Jason and Jen photo:

I actually managed to elbow out the competition at Sarah’s wedding and catch the bouquet, so it only makes sense that:

Wedding #22 will be our own wedding! Yay! So exciting!!

And this concludes the “Weddings That I’ve Been To” series. Now back to our regularly-scheduled blogging.

Weddings That I’ve Been To, Day 4

Are you getting sick of these posts yet?  Or enjoying the trip down memory lane?

Wedding #13:  Erin (Jason’s cousin) and Tim.  Erin and Tim had a very swanky event in the bride’s hometown, just outside of Philly!  They had a full mass at a beautiful old catholic church,  followed by a very nice reception at a country club.  Here’s a shot of Jason and I during the cocktail hour (you can see some of the golf course in the background of this shot):

Here’s a shot of most of the ladies in Jason’s family:

And here’s one of the beautiful bride, Jason’s sister, and Jason’s cousin:

And, just to end the fantastic evening in a very special way, Kevin and Jason had to break into their parents’ house because they didn’t have the key:

Wedding #14:  Emily and Drew.  I’ve known Emily since high school.  Em and Drew met at Creighton University and got married in St. Louis, in the church where Emily’s parents were married.  Isn’t that sweet!?!  Anyways, Jason and I decided to make the 9 hour drive from Minneapolis to St. Louis to attend (okay, I decided we should drive, Jason just went with it).  Here’s JT and I (yes, same outfit again, I know!!):

Emily and Drew’s reception was held at the botanical gardens in St. Louis.  Here’s a shot of my high school girls and I at the reception (from left to right: Kitty, Amanda, Me, Carrie):

A shot of the girls and I with the beautiful bride:

And, of course, I shot of the arch.  I made Jason pull off the highway for this one… only, we pulled off in kind of a sketchy industrial area.  Jason was NOT impressed.

Wedding #15:  Chuck and Jeanine.  Chuck was one of Jason’s college roommates, and Jeanine was the girl across the hall.  So, naturally, it only made sense for the wedding to be held at their alma mater, Loyola College in Maryland.  Here is the church (it totally reminds me of the church at St Olaf College, my alma mater):

Here’s a shot of Jason and two of his other college roommates, Thom and Erik.  We’re really excited that they’ll be able to make it to our wedding – Thom and his better half (hey! he admitted it on his own blog!), Onora, are coming from Seattle, and Erik is coming all the way from Italy to join us!!

Thom and Onora.  Thank goodness Onora was there… she was my partner in crime for the evening.

Jason and I.  Note my cheesy big grin.  Somebody (or two somebodies, actually) may have had a lot to drink at this wedding.  The next morning may have been rough.  Fortunately, there are no incriminating photos of me threatening to elbow the bridesmaids out of the way to catch the bouquet.

Wedding #16:  Josh and Katie.  Josh and I met my Junior year of high school.  He was always the organizer of things, most of the time, the organizer of crazy, random, fun things.  Like the night soon after Christmas where we pulled all of the Christmas trees that people had placed on curbs into our friend, Julie’s yard.  It was a hoot, and I’m sure she really appreciated it the next morning.  So, anyways, when Josh announced that he had met someone cute and she agreed to marry him, there was no way I was going to miss the wedding.  Even if it was in Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, I have only 2 pictures from the evening.  First, me and the Malmstrom brothers.  Troy is the cool guy on the left with the sunglasses – I used to carpool with him my senior year (actually, I just drove because he didn’t have his license yet), and I’m certain that I annoyed him the entire way.  Matt is on the right, and he’s the first guy I ever conned into going to the ballet.  We dated for 5 minutes, until I realized I was in high school and not really into dating anyways.

2.  Adam and I.  Adam is another BCHS (Brookfield Central High School) grad, and his parents live down the street from my parents!

Jason and I had so much fun hanging out with these kids that we all went out with them after the wedding.  Actually, we had so much fun that I got sick on the drive home the next morning.  Which was not great, since we had to make a stop in Milwaukee to take the annual Perry Family Christmas Photo.  So, if you’ve seen the 2005 edition of the PFCP, that might explain why I was slightly green.  Very Christmasy and festive.  Not quite so much fun.

Oh man, I STILL HAVE MORE!  So there will be at least another day of this wedding madness.  Perhaps I should have titled this latter section, “Times I drank too much and got sick the next day”  – might be more fitting.

Weddings That I’ve Been To, Day 3

Apologies for my lack of posting last night – Jason and I went to my cousin’s house for dinner and I came home with a migrane. I suspect it was caused by laughing too much… either that or my horrible posture causing the muscles in my neck to tense up and ache.

Anyways, up today: Jen does the chicken dance! This won’t be the last you see of my chicken dance moves… just wait ’till the wedding. I hope you all know and love the chicken dance and the electric slide – it wouldn’t be a wedding without those. And we’ll need a polka also. Because, come on, how much more German Milwaukee can you get?

Wedding #9: Uncle Brian and Aunt Jackie. I am so sad that these are the only pictures I have from this wedding. Jackie’s dress was amazing, and I wish I could show you all how cute she was! Brian and Jackie got married in this big huge old fancy catholic church, and Jackie wore her mom’s wedding dress (Jackie’s sister also wore the same dress – each had it altered just slightly to fit their style). I love it! I would totally wear my mom’s wedding dress… if it wasn’t horrible 80s style. I just don’t think any amount of alterations would turn it into something I’d ever wear (sorry mom, but you also said that you hated your wedding dress, so I don’t think I’m being too offensive here). Anyways, the chicken dance. Check out that huge grin on my face… must have been a good time. (also, look how much Robby has grown since Sunday’s post!)

Oh man, I am breaking it down in this shot: (I’ve since decided that those white shoes are not my favorite with the blue dress. What was I thinking?)

Wedding #10: Jake and Christina. This was the first friends wedding that I went to – Jake and Christina were college friends, and I had chemistry classes with both of them. They were married at our alma mater the year after graduation. Again, I have no pictures of the bride and groom, but here are some of me. Here is me with friends Jared and Katie (also fellow chemistry majors):

And, pictures of me with my awesome friend, Stacy, whose wedding you’ll hear about soon…

It’s a little bit sad to see these pictures, actually, because I haven’t kept in touch with Jake, Christina, Jared, or Katie. It almost makes me wonder who of our current friends we won’t be in touch with in another 5 years… I hope one of the perks of getting married when I’m a little older is that I’ll be able to keep in touch with all of the friends that will attend our wedding.

Wedding #11: Kevin (Jason’s brother) and Amy. Kevin and Amy’s wedding was by far one of the more fun weddings we’ve been to. I was a little nervous at first, having just met Jason’s family a few months earlier, but they are all just so darn nice that you can’t help but like them. The wedding took place in Chapel Hill, NC, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Good thing, too, because they had a very impressive outdoor reception held in tents in their backyard. Again – this is one of those things that I am not brave enough to pull off – because I would have freaked out for MONTHS that it was going to rain. But not Kevin and Amy. They were cool as cucumbers that week.

Here’s a shot of the wedding party:

Jason, Bridget (his sister), and I: (note that I am guilty of wearing the same dress to 2 weddings. also, that dress only cost $20! I am proud of my deal-finding ways.)

The Ross’ and I:

Jason giving his best man speech:

Wedding #12: Mike and Colleen. Leenie was my next door neighbor in high school, and of course I was *thrilled* when she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (she’ll return the favor in October)!! Their wedding was also super-fun, and she was such a laid back, calm bride. Hopefully I’ll be the same…

Colleen’s mom hosted a bridal luncheon on the day before the wedding. She treated us to a delicious lunch, and then gave a lovely speech about how all the ladies in the room will be who Colleen goes to when she has a rough patch in her marriage, and will be who Colleen celebrates with when things are going well. It was kind of a tear-jerker. I just love the idea of getting all the girls together the day before the wedding, but am doubtful that I have the time to plan something like this. Anyways, the picture:

And on to the actual wedding day. Here’s a shot of the other bridesmaids and I – check out how gorgeous the flowers are!

The wedding party:

Jason and I:

Cutting a rug at the reception: (you’ve seen this one already, but I wanted to remind you how fun it was. we danced all night!)

Stay tuned tomorrow… just a few more in this series, and if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll have some good stories.