Old Soul, Young Heart

I'm making myself this cake for my birthday. It's called Better Than Sex Cake and I had it for the first time when I was like 12 and it was my favorite homemade cake ever since then. It is chocolate cake, with holes punched in it with a fork. And then you pour chocolate and caramel sauce in the holes. And then you put whipped topping on top of it and then you crush Heath bars and sprinkle it on top with more chocolate and caramel sauce. It blows your mind. I haven't had it for like 10 years or something, so I'm super excited for it. Maybe Philip will even like it because of the whipped topping. I might let my dad have some too. I mean, I probably don't need a whole cake for myself...

Philip reads my blog regularly and I asked him if he thinks Wedding Wednesday is nerdy and he said, "kinda." Ha. Wedding Wednesday! I've been DIYing the invitations quite a bit. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like. Right now I'm like one-fourth of the way done with them and even that has taken a long time, so I hope I don't regret making them myself haha. I've run out of the paper that I need, so I'm feel like I'm running to Hobby Lobby like every other day. I made my first fitting appointment for my wedding gown. I have to admit that as I was making that call, it all felt really real to me. The appointment's not until August 4. It'll be fun to put that dress on again! Michele and my aunt have both gotten their bridesmaid dresses. Here's Michele in her's! Lovely. The color is so pretty! 108 Days Until Our Wedding!

Wedding Wednesday! I now think that the Pantagraph is a bargain. It's $40 to submit your engagement announcement and $45 to submit your wedding announcement. The Peoria Journal Star can be up to $43 for engagement (I spent $30) and up to $125 for wedding, which includes all the same things you would get for the Pantagraph announcement. Kiiinda crazy. We'll see what the Farmington Shopper costs. We (me, Joy, and the girls) went flower girl dress shopping on Saturday. We found a $40 one at JC Penney that's super cute. Our concern now is that it doesn't come in the right size, so we need to do a little more research on that. I really hope it comes in their size, because I'm honestly kind of over the whole flower girl dress thing. It was fun the first two times, but I just want it to be chosen at this point. We also went around to a whole bunch of bridal stores in Peoria looking for a sash/belt for my dress. I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm too p...

Yesterday I was in Joliet for the first ILACADA (Illinois Academic Advising Association) conference. I have to be honest when I say that I am usually unimpressed with conferences. I think they are important for networking and kind of "recharging one's batteries," but generally the sessions sound good to me but then don't deliver what I was expecting and wanting. This conference was different, though! The first session was about passion, something that I feel is lacking for me sometimes in my job. We were asked to grab someone nearby to us and talk about our three biggest personal passions and our three biggest professional passions. I dislike these sorts of activities because I'm horrible at coming up with things right off the top of my head. After 30 seconds of contemplation, the personal passions I came up with were my family, traveling, and animals. (I honestly don't have much that I am passionate about, which is kinda sad. I like a lot of things, but don...

Wedding Wednesday! I got the right color of pocketfolds in the mail, so I can start DIYing the invitations. I started to, but realized I needed to change something in the wording, so I'm glad I caught that before I printed all 65 of them. I did a little crafting this past weekend. I made a few pomander balls, which will jazz up the chapel by adding some color and interest. I also strung some beads and pearls; I'm maybe going to try to make my own hairpiece, but we'll see! I made an appointment to talk to I Do Events in Washington next Tuesday. I wish I could afford for them to pimp out the entire chapel and reception venue, but obvs that's not going to happen. I'm going to see what they can do within my budget in terms of centerpieces for the tables at the reception.  That's it for now. 122 Days Until Our Wedding!

Friday night was graduation at Braden Auditorium for Heartland students. I have to be honest when I say that I wasn't so excited to help (mostly because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing) and I didn't really feel like giving up my Friday evening for it. But since I made the commitment, I went. Right when I walked into the Brown Ballroom I knew that I made the right decision to show up and help. Seeing graduates in their garb just makes me so happy. I handed out programs to the graduates and helped them line up (and be quiet) outside in the lobby before they walked across the stage. There was just such an air of pride and accomplishment; it made me happy to know that I helped (some of) them in a small way maybe. Gayle and I watched and listened to some of the speeches, namely the student speaker and the Distinguished Alumni speaker, Tim Rixstine, a former Alumni Board member who I know. They made me tear a few times (dorky, I know), but I just have so much pride ...

I just saw something on Pinterest called Wedding Wednesday and I feel as though I should incorporate this into my blog somehow. Wedding Wednesday isn't anything in particular from what I can tell; it's probably just a catchy theme from a blog or website. But I like the idea of it, so maybe I should make wedding-only posts on Wednesdays? Or maybe the only time I post anything wedding-related should be Wednesday? Maybe the latter with all of the updates from the previous week. We'll see how this turns out. So... to kick off Wedding Wednesday ... here's an update! After the "I almost chose the wrong wedding dress" debacle, I decided to try on my dress. It was the first time I've had it on since I bought it and I really do love it. Chloe was like, "What is with all of this material?! How can I hide in it?! Can I lay on it?! It's so comfy!!!" Next weekend when we go to look for new flower girl dresses, Joy and I are also going to some bridal ...