Game of Life

Saturday included one of my main Matron of Honor duties: the bridal shower. We decided to have a separate shower for all of Lauren's college friends from Murray. Once the venue was booked and the invitations sent, it was time to get crackin' on the actual details. 

Now, I have never hosted a bridal shower, and I have actually not even really been to that many (other than my own). So, I can't say that I had a lot of experience to know what to do... One thing I did know, is that I wanted it to be unique and fun for everyone.

To get ideas, I first looked on pinterest, because, well duh. After several scrolls down, I saw a pin where someone used Jenga pieces as a guest book registry at their wedding, which I thought was a cute idea. So, I got to thinking about how this or something like this could be incorporated into a shower. A few bad ideas later, I came up with this: A wedding shower using classic games, but not actually playing the games at the shower... Here's how it turned out.

Classic play on words... (thanks mom and dad)

Guests could give advice to the Bride and Groom. Some examples included date night ideas, bible Verses, tips from experience, or just things to make them laugh!

Guests could guess how many dots were on a set of Dominoes. Our guesses were all over the board!

The food we had was minimal, yet delicious. Game pieces were used for decoration in every possible instant!

The Bride-and-Groom-to-Be played a game with cards where they were asked a question of who is more likely to do _________. If they thought the Bride was more likely to do said thing, they held up a Queen, and if they thought the Groom was more likely to do it, they held up a King. Kind of like This Video... Also, you will notice the table was decorated with game pieces from many games... Twister mat, yahtzee pages, cards, scrabble letters, monopoly money, dice.

At the end of the day, the shower was a success, and the happy couple got 6 new games plus a deck of cards. Everybody wins. Haha...get it?

I personally think that everyone had a great time at the shower. Not because of the theme, or the food or the games, or the gifts, but because of the friendships. Lauren's friends are so supportive and genuine. It was fun to listen to them catch up and watch them get excited for one another!

Here are some more pictures from the shower:

Thanks to the Bridesmaids and mom for all of your help!

Thanks again, to all of you ladies who came to the shower and supported Lauren and Blake!

#LamFam15

<< Previous in the Secrets of the MOH series - Next in the Secrets of the MOH series >>

Secrets from the Matron of Honor, Introduction

Holy Macroll, I can't believe my younger sister, Lauren, is getting married.... In about 2 1/2 months, she will be walking down the aisle to become Mrs. Blake Lam. How can this be possible? It seems like just yesterday that.... well, I won't get into a sappy story in this post. I'll save that for later.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be writing a series of blog posts about the events leading up to Lauren and Blake's wedding from the perspective of the Matron of Honor. I've made a sort of rough draft outline of post titles. These will be coming your way from now through the wedding day, and I will be sprinkling in non-wedding posts as well. Stay tuned!

The Secrets from the Matron of Honor series will include:

• Game of Life
• Wedding Craft Day
• National Siblings Day
• Something Blue
• That Time in Memphis
• #TBT
• Final Countdown
• Lauren Lam
• Pre-Wedding Shenanigans
• Matron of Honor Toast

Next in the series >>


Photo by: Mikaela Hamilton Photography 

Brown Paper Packages #6

I skipped posting a BPP post last week due to the fact that I was out of town for a work conference. So, lucky for all of you faithful readers out there, you get a double dose of our favorite things!

Pi Day Celebration - 2 Saturdays ago was Pi Day. Not just any Pi Day, but the ultimate Pi Day. Click here to read my thoughts about this. To celebrate, we invited my parents over to enjoy what? You guessed it. Pie. We ate chicken pot pie and my Mom's pecan pie, and we played Trivial Pursuit (because, ya know, the pie pieces). It was a great day!

Free Cone at Dairy Queen - Dairy Queen gave away free cones one day for their 75th birthday. DQ has a special place in my heart, since I used to work there. But, lets be honest, we didn't go to support Dairy Queen, or celebrate their birthday. We went for the free food. 

And then this happened, when we realized the smiley poop emoji on my shirt looked like a chocolate cone....

Catching up with Friends - As I mentioned, I was out of town for a work conference last week. The conference was great, but definitely one of the highlights was getting to see my good friend, Maegan. It was really nice to get to have dinner with her and just talk about our lives! This past Monday, Nathan got to do the same thing with one of his good friends, Cody. Its not often that we get to see our old friends, but when it does happen, we are so grateful. We're both so blessed to have good friends to enjoy and trust! (no pictures available)


A New Craft - Whenever I was wedding planning, I decided that I wanted to incorporate things into our wedding that could be useful after the wedding day. Our guest book was a Bible, which is more special to us than a simple book with names written in it. Our unity ceremony used a canvas, which is hanging in our house as a constant reminder of the day two became one. We both bought practical shoes for our wedding day so that we could wear them from day to day. Which leads me to the new craft. I decided to turn my wedding bouquet into a wreath. I figured, why let something so beautiful collect dust in a closet when I could manipulate it into something equally as beautiful as well as serve as a reminder of our special day. Anyway, here is the result:

I bought a simple stick wreath and several sprigs of greenery. I used all of the flowers from my bouquet. The 3 larger white flowers were also from our wedding, but not from my bouquet. What do you think? Do you think I should have keep my bouquet the way it was? Leave a comment below (on the blog OR on facebook, whichever you prefer). 


March Madness - I'm not into sports. Simple as that. I'm not even that competitive, other than when it comes to being right about something. But I have really gotten into March Madness this year. For the first time in my life, I CHOSE to watch Selection Sunday. Although, I was very doubtful, I wanted to see if Murray State would make it into the tournament (they didn't...). Anyway, this spurred a series of events which led to Nathan inviting a bunch of people into a bracket pool using CBS Sports. Since then, it has been almost 2 weeks, and I have to admit, I'm kind of REALLY enjoying March Madness. You know what they say.... "Dems Deberry"

One bad thing happened since the last BPP. Its very trivial, but I'm still mourning the loss of my old phone number. As many of you may have noticed (via the mass text I was forced to send), I got a new phone and with that a new phone number. AT&T forced me to do this, since I was coming from a different phone provider. I don't want to get into all of the gorey details, but I'm really sad to be swittching numbers.... RIP old phone number. Needless to say, we are not very happy with AT&T. Click here to read important info about AT&T and scams they try to pull.

Kale Chips

Kale? What the heck is kale?

It's a vegetable. It's green. It's leafy. It's a fad. But hey, who cares? I'm not against jumping on the bandwagon! Especially when the bandwagon is only 34 calories per serving.

I started hearing about kale frequently on a couple of YouTubers' vlogs. They're from LA, and obviously more up on the trends than I. They rave about it, and because we're such great friends, I decided I'd give it a try.


Ingredients:

• Kale
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Get a cookie sheet ready (I lined mine with aluminum foil for easy clean up).

2. Strip the kale leaves from the stems. I learned this from Rachel Ray (she's also one of my good friends). Place the stem between your pointer and middle finger and form a hook shape (see the picture below). The pull your fingers towards the tip of the kale. The leaves come off pretty easy.

3. Wash and dry the kale. If you have a lot of time, its ok to let it air dry. I was on a time crunch because the spaghetti was already cooking, so I used a clean towel to dry mine faster.

4. Spread the kale leaves onto the cookie sheet. Pour extra virgin olive oil on top of the kale. Then, toss the kale with your hands so that the EVOO gets on it evenly(ish). Sprinkle generously with salt.

5. Cook in the oven for about 5-9 minutes or until crisp. I have seen recipes that direct you to flip the kale to evenly crisp them, but I did not do that.

6. Serve.

Review:

Overall this recipe was a success! Most of the kale was nice and crisp (like a thin potato chip). Surprisingly, Nathan seemed to REALLY like the kale chips....

Nathan rated this recipe a 4 / 5

I rated this recipe 4.5 / 5

Original Recipe was found on TheKitchn.com

Declaring War on AT&T

I've been a loyal AT&T customer since I was 16 years old. I even "blessed" them by paying a $908 phone bill (which is another long, sad, painful blog post.) So when I graced them with my presence at two of their stores this week, I was extremely angry at the way the company has decided to treat their customers.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and probably other wireless companies offer special new upgrade plans that allow you to get a new phone faster. AT&T's program is called Next, which looks great up front, but is a MAJOR ripoff. Essentially, the carrier doesn't want to give you a discounted phone in exchange for staying with them for two years now; they want you to buy your own phone. The Next plan encourages you to take a line of credit through AT&T and pay the price of the phone back in increments. Fine, whatever. So instead of paying $200 for the new iPhone, I have to pay back the full $650 for the phone. Plus pay for their service...

Looking at AT&T's website, I can select a new iPhone 6 for $0; only tax on the phone is due at the time. I can select a number (which is apparently the amount of time it takes for you to be eligible to trade the phone in, not the time it takes to pay the phone back) and then it will tell me how much I have to pay per month for the phone. I have three options: 12, 18 and 24. I'm going to select the 12, just for giggles...coming to $32.50 per month for the next twelve twenty months, interest free...if I have good credit and have a qualifying plan. If not, I get charged 3% interest per month while paying the phone back. It might be just me, but doesn't the average American already have $7,000 in credit card debt? Why would AT&T want to add to this? Oh, right, it's because they do not give a rip about their customers, as long as they are making their millions.

So, assuming that I don't read the terms and just accept the Next plan, I'm going to be paying an extra $32.50 per month, plus the cost of service. Oh, wait, but that's okay! As long as you use AT&T's Next plan, they'll give you a $25 discount on your line for using it! Aren't they so generous? Well, to someone unfortunate like me, who had to recently sign up for a two-year contract, as that was all that was offered to me, I'm now going to get an extra $25 tacked onto my bill. It's a discount if it works for you, a fine if it doesn't. So I'm getting fined by the company that I've been with for almost 10 years for not taking out a line of credit with them.

The plan that AT&T offered me this week was to change my plan to a family plan for $160 per month. Plus that lovely $25 fine. Plus the cost per month of Ash's new phone because of the Next Plan. But that's okay, since we get to upgrade in a year, right?! Well, yeah, if I wanted to give AT&T her practically brand new phone for them to resale, and then waste more money on another phone. And take out another line of credit. And the only way I can get out of that deal is to pay of the remaining balance of all my phones/credit lines.

In closing, the best way to handle the situation, I found, it to just buy the phone, straight up. Yes, I know it's a lot of money up front, but I'd rather pay cash for it then. And I still get the $25 "discount" since I didn't use a two year contract. And not that it will change anything, but I'm filing a Better Business Bureau complain against AT&T, just to try and waste their time. I don't want the Federal Government to regulate this kind of stuff,  since they also have no control over their spending, but I'm also calling my State Representatives, because almost forcing people to take a line of credit should be illegal. AT&T will not tell you this up front. They won't explain it to you. They don't care...they just want your money.

What cell phone carrier do you use? What do you like or dislike about them? Leave a comment below.

Crock Pot Hot Choc

I've recently been trying out new crock pot recipes. When we were preparing for our first annual Christmas party, I stumbled upon this beaut. Its homemade hot chocolate with just a few simple ingredients. A large crock pot can produce about 12 cups of his steamy drink for a party or just family snuggle night.

Ingredients:

• 10 cups of milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups hot water
• toppings galore

Note: this recipe is can easily be divided. If you want a smaller batch, just half all of the ingredients.

Directions:

1. Mix milk, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a large sauce pan. Stir until sugar is completely dissolve. It usually takes me a few minutes to un-clump the cocoa as well. While you are mixing start warming the mixture (this will help save you time).

2. Add hot water. Stir a bit and bring to a boil. Let this mixture boil for 3 minutes. CAUTION: The first time I made this, it boiled over onto the stovetop... smelling burnt chocolate for dayzzzz.....

3. Pour the mixture into a large crockpot. Cook on low for 3 hours.

4. Use a ladle to get hot choc into mugs. Add the toppings. I usually use mini marshmellows, topped with whipped cream, topped with shaved chocolate (sometimes topped with a cherry for Nathan).

Review:

I like this recipe because it helps with preparation when you are trying to make a lot of things that all need to be ready at the same time. Also, it seems more fancy than just using the Swiss Miss packs, so its good for when you are trying to impress people. Additionally, people can ladle out as much or as little as they want because the whole pot is equally mixed, whereas, other hot chocolate methods only allow for a set amount of liquid.

Nathan rated this recipe 4.5 / 5

I rated this recipe 4 / 5

Original recipe from yummyhealthyeasy.com.

Our Bedroom Makeover

So, the walls of our bedroom are pretty much blank. Why? Well.... I guess because its the least likely place for a guest to wander into. Also, I've been waiting to stumble upon some type of decoration that is unique yet appropriate for our bed room. Additionally, we are on a tight budget, so its not like we can spend a huge chunk of money on making our bedroom look like it came out of a magazine.

I've been looking on pinterest and craigslist periodically to find cheap ideas. I was willing to create something myself as long as it wasn't something too crazy. FINALLY, the time has come to complete our bedroom!

First, I decided to just go ahead and paint some canvases. I wanted them to look calm and soft, yet bring in at least a little bit of color for interest. Here's what happened...

CLICK HERE to find out how to make your own abstract canvases!

Next, we needed something in place of where a headboard would be. Our bed is a free-standing mattress on a simple bed frame. Ever since I've been on my own, I haven't really been into having an actual bed or headboard. Mostly, because they cost so much. So, I've learned to improvise.

I found a neat idea on pinterest, and I figured I could give it a shot. It included a curtain rod, chiffon curtains, and white christmas lights.

First, I hung a curtain rod. Normally, I would not put the rod up so close to the ceiling, but I wanted it to be the same height as the curtain rod for the window (which is really high due to the length of the curtain). After the rod was set, I used command mini hooks to hang the Christmas lights evenly apart. Last, I added the chiffon curtains. Here is the result:

When the lights are on, it creates a nice ambiance. When the lights are off, you can't even really see the lights!

The total cost of the blank canvases, curtain rod, chiffon curtains, Christmas lights (300 light), and command hooks was about $80. I already had the paint and hooks to hang the canvases. 

Overall, I'd say this project was a success. And now our bedroom look a little less bare.

More pictures

Abstract Canvas

I recently painted some abstract canvases for our bedroom. Although I would consider myself fairly crafty, this is a project that anyone can complete! Follow the steps below to make your own!

To make this, I used 16x20 canvases, a foam brush, and craft paint. I painted these side-by-side so that it would obvious that they are the same style and color. 



First, I started with, what I would call a blob in the upper corner of the canvases. The first color I chose to start with was muted navy blue. To make this color, I used Royal Blue and Brown. These just happened to be some colors that I had.



Using the foam brush you can easily fade from one color to the next. This works better when you are using similar shades, but as you can see, it works with totally different color as well (red).



As I went along, I tried to be mindful of the shapes I was forming. I wanted the two paintings to be similar, but different, and definitely not a mirror image of one another. 



I used mainly many shades of blue (which I mixed to match our bedspread), but I also added the red streak, and the pink and khaki streaks. This gives the eye a focal point, instead of just glazing over. 



I pretty much just painted curvy lines. Each time I would added a new streak, I overlapped a bit onto the previous streak. Overlapping using the foam brush makes it easy to blend from one streak to the next.



You'll see in the large photo, that I actually flipped one of the canvases. I planned on this from the beginning as to help with them looking similar, yet different.

This project took me an hour at most. For this project, I used royal blue, brown, khaki, and red to mix all of the shades you see here. As I mentioned, you try this out with any colors (however I would probably stray from lots of black).

Enjoy!

Pi Day: The best holiday of the year

So, let me just say, that I LOVE PIE. As I've alluded to before, I wouldn't consider myself super talkative, but there are certain topics that will get me going. Weirdly, pie is one of them. Let's take a look into the history of me and pie....

First, when I was little, I mostly liked pie because of the crust. But then once I got older, I started to enjoy more and more pie fillings.

Let's get real, the best part of a church potluck is all of the pies from which you have to choose (granted, I almost always chose my mom's). Just thinking about walking over to the dessert table and seeing all the glorious pies makes my mouth water. 

When, I was in high school, my AP calculus teacher had us celebrate pi day. Honestly, this was the first time I had ever heard of celebrating March 14. There were 15 people in the class, and each one of us brought a pie from home. We all swapped pieces and ate during class. For those of you doing the math.... if each student ate an equal amount, that would mean each had the opportunity to eat 8 slices (equal to a whole) pie in 90 minutes.... I managed 3 pieces. It was great..... How could I have gone 18 years without this holiday!?!?!

Then you've always got the restaurants who are obvious pie supporters. O'charley's is a great example. Free pie Wednesday? Yeah, I'd say they are avid pie lovers. Or maybe Wednesdays are just slow and they need more business. Either way, I approve of free pie Wednesday. And then there's Patti's 1880's Settlement.... They have so many pies, I don't even know where to start. I'll just say, if you want the full pie experience, go try one at Pattis. Leave a comment of restaurants that have awesome pies, because I probably need to go eat there.

I told you I get riled up about pies...

This year, pi day is especially special. pi=3.141592653................ so, 3-14-15 is the ultimate pi day. Also, check out the bottom and see what time that this was published. Yep, 9:26.

In honor of pi day, I figured I'd make a pie chart including some possible dessert choices....Don't judge me.

Plainly, "Pie" presented as the preferred pie piece. Say that 5 times fast...

List of Pies that I like:

• Chocolate Fudge Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Caramel Pie
• Key Lime Pie
• Banana Cream Pie
• Derby Pie
• Peach Pie
• Chess Pie
• Chocolate Chess Pie
• Blackberry Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• Strawberry Cream Pie
• Oreo Pie
• Blueberry Pie
• Peanut Butter Pie
• Apple Pie
• Cheesecake (Don't act like this isn't a pie...)

List of Pies that I do not like:

• Cherry Pie
• Pie with meringue 

P.S. Cake sucks.

Brown Paper Packages #5

Well... here it goes.

If you read last week's BPP, you know that my cousin, Kaitlynn, was competing to win a singing contest on Mix 92.9 called the Singing Star. Teenagers all over the Nashville area (within 60  miles of Nashville) submitted youtube videos to the radio station and they narrowed the submittals down to the top 10. Every day for the past two weeks one person from the top 10 has been eliminated. Well.... KAITLYNN WON! As her manager, I would just like to say, thanks to EVERYONE who cast even 1 vote! (just kidding about being her manager. I'm really her agent) All kidding aside, its exciting that I know a famous person now.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO WHEN MIX 92.9 ANNOUNCED THAT KAITLYYN WON!

We got our taxes done for the first time as a married couple. It was not very exciting, honestly, but it is something that happened. Shoutout for taxes?... (no real picture available, because it would be awkward taking your picture with your tax lady....)

The time change. It happened. My thoughts about the time change for the first 36 hours are hatred. But, I have to say, it has been really nice getting home before dark! Click here to read Nathan's view of Daylight Savings Time. Additionally, the cold weather seems to be leaving for good this year! We have been able to go on a walk around the block 3 days so far!

Last weekend, we had supper with the Logsdons. It was a good time because its never not a good time with them. #tower

See ya later.

Koba's Human Age

Every morning we wake up to meows every 2.5 seconds to remind us that it's breakfast time. If we push the snooze button, he politely starts knocking stuff off of our night stands. He's so helpful. Not being a morning person, our kitten is super annoying starting at around 5:00 am until we feed him. His crying and throwing a fit makes me wonder what age Koba would be if he was a human, based on only his actions.

Infant: Koba likes to be carried like a baby... Apparently, being held belly-up is not something that all cats like. Koba does, at least for a few minutes until he finds something better to do.

Age 2: Early in the morning, Koba acts like a two year old. as I mentioned, he will meow and meow and meow until we get up out of bed. If that doesn't work, he starts knocking things over. Once one of us is up and out of bed, he will continue meowing until he thinks we are following him, and then try to lead us to his food bowl. Apparently, he thinks the reason we aren't feeding him is because we forgot where his food is. This is literally an everyday occurrence.

Age 3: Koba's curiosity reminds me of a 3 year old. Sadly, he can't just accept the fact that he's not allowed to do certain things. He just has to check out everything new, and he's quick enough to run away when he gets in trouble. He's so excited to go outside and explore, but half the time we take him out he's either scared or cold and wants to go back inside.

 

Age 6: When Koba is playing he reminds me of a young boy. He will wrestle with you until he feels like he is losing, and then he will run away. He loves to play catch and jump for a string. He loves to play!

  

Teenage Boy: When it's mealtime, he scarfs down his food like a teenage boy who just got home from football practice. He scavenges for food EVERYWHERE and he doesn't care if its several days old. Its gross.

Old Man: At bedtime, Koba acts like an old man. The way he will just lay on us, or snuggle up to us to get warm, or nuzzle his nose under the covers is so sweet.

So who knows how old Koba would really be if he was a human...

Click Here to watch a video of Koba when we first got him!

Daylight Savings Hallelujah!

I never understood why my mom hated the time change when I was younger, but now, I feel her pain. I hate getting off of work and walking outside right into nighttime. I struggle to feel 100% happy during the cold, dark winters, and I begin to count down the days until I lose an hour of sleep in exchange for an extra hour of sun.

THAT. DAY. HAS. ARRIVED.

The time has changed, I've barely been able to get out of bed, but I don't care--I will take the trade. The weather forecast seems to know that I long for Spring after the last two snowstorms and has decide to bless me with beautiful weather. Heck, I'll even take the cloudy days if it's warmer and it doesn't get dark until 7! 

Thank God for changing seasons...if you get stuck in one, don't worry; a new one is on its way. And I may be jumping the gun, but it's time for shorts and Sperrys now, right?

CC Image courtesy of North Charleston on Flickr

Brown Paper Packages #4

**Vote for Kaitlynn** My cousin Kaitlynn has been entered in a singing contest on the Nashville radio station, Mix 92.9. She was chosen to be in the top ten finalists on Monday morning. People can vote as many times as they want from 7am to 7pm. Everyday someone will be eliminated. Kaitlynn has made it through the first few rounds, and we are all hoping she will win the whole contest. The winner gets $1000 for college and $1000 for their school! Everyone help, by voting on THIS LINK.

Here are some quick tips on speed-voting:
1. you do not have to capitalize or add spaces in the letters/numbers submittal
2. you can press enter, instead of clicking submit
3. if you have been refreshing the page, try F5 (on a PC) or "command, R" on a Mac

If you can get in a rhythm, you can get several votes in (I just speed-voted and got 11 votes in one minute). We want her to win!!!

Another Snow Day = Another Whistling Video. This was requested by some of my good friends! I had a fun time playing with the different settings that iMovie offers. CLICK HERE to watch the video!

Look out for Murray State! I saw a status on Monday afternoon that said, "Hey world, do yourself a favor and ask Siri who her favorite college basketball team is." Honestly, I didn't think much about it because I figured it would be something about UK and honestly, I don't care that much about UK.... or really sports in general, for that matter. Several hours passed, and I saw a screenshot of someone's iPhone. Check my alma mater out! HEYO!!!

Look at the T-Shirt Quilt my  mom made! In case you haven't heard (which is unlikely), my mom is retired. She taught at Olmstead School for 30 years and now she's got plenty of time to basicaally do whatever she wants. One of her new past-times is t-shirt quilt making. She made me one for Christmas (It. Is. Legit.) and she made the one pictured below for DanDan for the Chinese New Year (We miss you DanDan!!) She has got 3 more in the works currently, and another one on order! If you are interested in ordering a t-shirt quilt from my mom, CLICK HERE.

Net Neutrality Ruling. (Written by Nathan) Net Neutrality is a principle that all online data should be treated equally, without hinderance from Internet Service Providers, such as Comcast, At&T, and Verizon. The internet being considered a utility has blocked the ability for Comcast (for example) to be able to make companies such as Netflix pay high price in order to have speed priority to continue brining their customers streaming video at the same speed. This has essentially taken millions of dollars of profit away form monopolis giants that already charge and unrestricted amount to their subscribers.

(Back to Written by Ashley) Sort of confusing, but this is a good thing!