Day 12: Your favorite concert

Out of all the concerts I have been to in my life, seeing fun. perform in September of 2009 at Kilby Court was the greatest one of all. For those of you not familiar with Kilby Court, it is a small little hole in the wall venue in downtown Salt Lake City, UT. When I say small and hole in the wall, I really mean it. Although it is lacking in square footage, its atmosphere and sound are no disappointment! I'd guess that max capacity is only a couple hundred people, at most.

Kilby Court

Fun. had just released their debut album, Aim and Ignite, in August of 2009 and was beginning their promoting tour. For those of us die-hards, we were anticipating the album release for months! When I heard the show was being played at this particular venue, I was elated. To me, this meant only true fans would be able to go, and not just anyone who heard something was going on from down the street.

So my friends Josh, Marcus and I were crammed into this tiny, shed-type building- like sardines- with other people who were just as excited to be there as we were. We were packed in so tight that because I put my arms up over my head at the beginning of the show, I had to leave them up the whole time, as there wasn't enough room to puck them back down. Everyone knew every word to every song that was played, and they certainly weren't shy about shouting them at the top of their lungs! By the end of the night, I was drenched in sweat (not just my own, mind you,) I lost my voice, and broke my second favorite pair of flip flops. However, I still consider that to be the greatest concert I have ever been to.

Us with the band, September 10, 2009

A preschool graduate!

Look out world, Jaylinne Louise has now graduated from preschool and is well on her way to becoming the smartest woman alive!

It was "circus day" at school, in case you're wondering what in the hell Mrs. B is wearing ;)

As some of you know, I had been having a rough time with this for the last few days. I just couldn't seem to quit crying! It's not that I'm sad to see her grow and progress, it's that I'm sad she's growing up. I feel like it was just yesterday that it was her first day of preschool, and now in the blink of an eye, it's her last! As a mom, I wish I had the option to tap the proverbial brakes, so to speak.

But unfortunately...I don't. So I figured I may as well embrace the change and roll with the punches! As I was thinking of what post I was going to write for my earliest childhood memory, I immediately thought about my first day of kindergarten. Then it hit me: Jaylinne is at an age where she can remember stuff! If I could remember my first day of kindergarten, there's a good chance she will remembers hers as well. Along with her last day of preschool. I don't want her to look back and remember these days and see her mom as a soggy, crying mess. So I decided that we would give Jaylinne and her classmates a proper send off, Sanders style! :)

Jaylinne gets so excited every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when she gets to go to school. She not only loves learning, but she loves the social aspect of it as well. When she isn't at school, she doesn't have a whole lot of friends around that are her age, that she gets to play with on a regular basis. So I wanted to think of a way that her friends at school could keep in touch with her if they wanted to. Enter treat bags!

Yup, I'm that mom. The one who looks for excuses to make treat bags whenever she can. It's president's Day?! Have a treat bag! Oh it's Friday? Here's a treat bag! They're fun for the kids, and I won't lie, I get a kick out of it too, ok? :)

We started out with these little gift bags. I thought they were fun because they looked like they were screaming, "SUMMER!"

Since it was the beginning of their summer vacation, I thought we had better include the essentials of summer. If their children were anything like my little one, I knew they would be needing some entertainment to replace school three times a week. Water balloons are a must! So each child got a bag of 100 water balloons, and a spout for easy fill-up.

After filling up 100 water balloons, they will have worked up quite a thirst. What better to quench thirst on a summer day than berry lemonade?!Yum.

When the water balloons run out, you don't want to be the one left without any ammunition! So a squirt gun is a necessity. There are pink and purple ones for the girls, and yellow and green ones for the boys ;)

Bubbles. Who doesn't love bubbles in the summertime?! It provides entertainment, and it doesn't stain clothes if it is spilled. Sign me up!

The kids spent so much time this year learning to read and write! Over summer vacation, I didn't want any of them to forget what they had learned, as they've all come so far. So I thought bookmarks might be a fun way for them to be excited about reading during summer break! I also included a pencil for each bag. If they are anything like Jaylinne, they will need to begin practicing their autograph for future endeavors ;)

And, again, because I don't want to be the "Raisins and Toothpaste House on Halloween," I decided we better throw in a few pieces of candy! Just enough to calm the horde of  sugar-starved, kindergarten-bound children ;)

We included this message in all the gift bags as well: It's been such a fun school year with all my friends! I'm sure going to miss seeing everyone 3 times a week. If you want to get together and play over the summer, here are my parents' cell phone numbers. Have a great summer!" She was so excited that she got to write her name all by herself on each one! :)

For Mrs. B, we brought a gift basket from Kara Chocolates.  We even had Jaylinne write a thank you card for her :)

As it turns out, I think I might have had ulterior motives when I decided to do the treat bags. Yes, it was a fun idea for the kids, but it also served as a little bit of closure for this momma bear as well :) So look out, summer! We are coming, and there are no signs of us slowing down any time soon!

Congratulations on graduating preschool Jaylinne! You are such a big, smart girl! We are all so proud of the little lady you are becoming. The possibilities are endless for you! We love you!

Day 11: Your earliest childhood memory

When I think back on my childhood memories, I remember bits and pieces from a lot of different events, but not a whole lot of complete memories are swimming around in my head. Because of that, I decided to go with the one I can remember the most about, which happens to be my first day of kindergarten.

I have an older sister that is 5 years older than me. When I was old enough to finally play and run around with her, she was in school for half of the day. It was my hell. I dreaded the days that she had to go to school, as I felt as though she was my own personal source of entertainment. In my little toddler brain, I always thought that when you were old enough to go to school, you have really made it. That's where the action was, and that's where I wanted to be. So naturally, you'd think I'd be excited to go to kindergarten right?! Wrong. I remember I was excited...at first. Then, as my mom was dropping me off for my first day of school, with Mrs. Jorgensen at Vineyard Elementary School, I was excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. I couldn't help but wonder what if the other kids didn't like me?! What if they didn't want to play with me?!It was almost too much for me!

But then, I realized that all the other kids were feeling the same way I was: we were all experiencing kindergarten for the first time, and we all just wanted to have friends. During our first recess, I was still feeling out the joint. I was slightly shy when I was younger, so it took me a little while to warm up to people. There was a girl that I was just absolutely captivated by. She had pretty blond hair, and was wearing a white dress, with pretty white socks with ruffles on them. A white dress?! At the time I was impressed because I thought she looked like a bride. However, these days, I look back and am impressed because she was 5 years old and was capable of wearing white....and keeping it white! I'm going on 28 and still haven't quite mastered that skill! Anyways, I just wanted to be friends with her, she had a kind vibe about her. Low and behold, she was my first friend I ever made at school! We went and played on the swings together. That girl's name was Nicole Kidd, and I am even still friends with her on Facebook to this day :) (Nicole, if you read this, pay no attention to the fact that I remember what you wore on your first day of kindergarten. NOT creepy ;) I prefer to call it "attentive!")

This is my kindergarten class  picture. I took a page out of Nicole's book and am in the white dress in the second row. Nicole is the blond girl on the top row.

I find it fitting that this was my earliest childhood memory I remembered the most detail about. Tomorrow is Jaylinne's last day of preschool, and I'm having a rough time with it. I can't believe that my baby will be going to her first day of kindergarten in a few short months! I'm not ready for this!? Where did the time go?! (I figure I'm entitled to a mommy meltdown at least once or twice a month. That's the standard, right?) I just hope that her first day will go as smoothly as mine did, and she will have a blast! Who knows, maybe one day she'll even blog about it ;)

Day 10: Your wedding

 My wedding. I must admit, this post is a little overwhelming for me. There's so much I could say! After taking a weekend off from blogging, spending 90% of the day in a pool, I feel like I have to work myself back into the blogging mode :) So...here goes nothing!

Shortly after Ryan and I decided we were going to get married, we decided we wanted to get married in Vegas. I never pictured myself getting married until I met Ryan, and when I did picture it, I saw VEGAS. I was never the type that had every detail of my wedding planned out, and frankly, it was just overwhelming to me (surprise, surprise!) So luckily, Ryan rolled with the punches!

We met in person for the first time on January 22, 2010. My parents got married on December 22, 1978, and my sister got married on July 22, 2000, so I figured I better stick with the 22nd as well! What better day than the anniversary of the day we met?! January 22, 2011 it was. When we decided on Vegas, I think we both pictured something very different than what we actually got. Initially, we were looking at getting married in a little chapel that was made to look like a 50s diner, with a cheesy Elvis doing the ceremony...

However, we soon found out for that particular venue, there could only be 20 people (including us and Elvis) in attendance. Don't get me wrong, we wanted a small wedding, with only our closest loved ones invited, but 20 guests was impossible. So instead, we decided to get married here:

At this venue, we could have up to 100 people in attendance if necessary. They also had complete packages available. Complete as in the whole package. As in Jessie would not have her head explode by trying to plan the decorations, flowers, photographers, etc.. The thought of all that made my head spin. NOT something I excel at, and NOT something I was dying to attempt. So early on, we decided this was the place for us!

A view of the inside of the chapel

The bridal suite

The lobby

After the venue was chosen, I had the task of finding the perfect dress ahead of me. The perfect dress?! Was there such a thing? I've only recently become a fan of dresses. I almost never wore a dress unless I had to. Why? You got me. I wasn't even completely sure I was going to wear a dress, but I figured I'd at least entertain the idea. So off we went. We walked in, and almost immediately, I was bombarded with questions I didn't know the answers to: What material? Which neckline? Do you prefer an empire waist? What in the hell is an empire waist?! Oh Lord. The consultant could apparently see my panic-stricken eyes, and decided we should just pull the old "browse and grab." And browse and grab we did! I ended up with about 5 dresses to try on. I wanted something different, but nothing over the top. I had no desire to walk down the aisle draped head to toe in sequins and lace. At the first place I went to look for dresses, and only the third one I tried on, I found my dress. As I look at pictures today, I love the look just as much as I did then.

In my eyes, the dress had a retro feel to it. I am not a fan of veils, so I wanted a vintage headpiece instead. Paired with a pearl necklace my Grandma gave me, and some black sequins high heels, I think it was perfect for me!

Next came the invitations. In order to make the invitations, we needed a few photos to go along with them. So one fall in October 2010, my best friend Brandy, Ryan, my Nikon and I set out on a mission. Initially, we were going to take the photos in an old abandoned house that had graffiti all over one wall. However, when we got there, that wall had been ripped down and we weren't left with much. There was still some graffiti, but not exactly what I was looking for. As awesome as it would have been to end up with the word "rectom" spray painted in blood red on our invitations, we went elsewhere.

We went to more than a few places that day, and didn't experience much luck. We were almost ready to call it a day when we decided to try a cornfield across the street from my parents' house. Little did we know that there, amidst all the Children of the Corn references, we would capture the photos we would use for our wedding invitations! My friend Stephanie helped with the design of the invitations, and with the help of Costco's one hour photo, I had my invitations in my hand the next day!
 

These were the invites to the reception that was on the Thursday after the wedding.

For the actual ceremony, we wanted to something a little more fun! So we went with a less traditional approach

Although the venue planned just about everything else, we still needed to find 3 songs to use during the ceremony. One for the wedding party to walk down the aisle to, one for me to walk down the aisle to, and one for the newly weds to walk back down the aisle to after the ceremony was over. We discussed, analyzed, and discussed some more. Finally, we decided on the songs that we felt were perfect for us. 

The wedding party walked down the aisle to "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service.

Ryan's brother Mike and my friend Maren

Ryan's brother Jeremy, and my sister Laura

Ryan's friend Rob, and my friend (and Joel's wife) Meggi

MK and our friend Micah who tragically died a month before the wedding in a car accident. We planned the wedding with him in it, and it was only right that he still was. We miss you, Micah!

Ryan's brother Chad and my best friend Brandy

Jaylinne and Joel

My dad and I walked down to an instrumental version of "The Gambler" by fun. Thanks again for recording that instrumental version for us, Joel! (Recognize that album cover anyone?! Haha)

My Dad and me. Aw :)

 After the ceremony, we walked out of the chapel to the musical stylings of a Mr. Butch Walker. Some of you may listen to this song and think it is an odd choice for a wedding. Well...don't choose it for your wedding then! But for Ryan and I, it was perfect. it reminded us of eachother :)

Somewhere along the way, as if Joel hadn't done enough for us, we made the decision of asking him to marry us. Best. Decision, Ever. He was perfect.We didn't want some stranger we didn't know giving some standard speech we've all heard a hundred times before. We wanted something with feeling. We wanted something genuine. That's exactly what we got. At one point, he even included Jaylinne, and I couldn't have imagined anything more perfect.

I love that the photographer took a picture of the rose tattoo on Joel's hand during the ceremony

After the ceremony, we changed out of our clothes and went to eat at a mexican restaurant on the strip called La Salsa Cantina. They have the most amazing queso in the world. THE WORLD!

After we filled our tummies, we headed back to our suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. Thanks to the Packs, we spent our first night being Mr. and Mrs. Sanders in the most amazing room I have ever stayed in! I even took pictures. Yay! :)

This was our bed. If you're not wanting to hop in it right now and take a nap then something is wrong with you! It was a king sized heaven.

This was the view we had from the bed. The tv at the foot of the bed had a twin on the other side of the wall too! Ignore the creep on the couch in the beanie, he came with the room ;)

The view from the couch

The huge jetted tub

The steam shower with body jets

The bathroom sink and vanity. Again, ignore the dork with the camera. I think she came with the room too ;)

We had 2 walls that were all windows, so we had a pretty awesome view!

So, there you have it! Our wedding. Did it turn out exactly how I saw it in my head? Basically, yes. I knew I needed the man of my dreams, and my friends and family by my side. All other elements were expendable :) Thanks to everyone who shared our special day with us!

Day 9: Your dream house

Since I've never actually bought a house, I haven't put a whole lot of thought into what my "Dream Home" would consist of.  I watch a lot of HGTV, (and when I say "a lot" I actually mean a ridiculous amount) and have seen a few things that I would love to have in my house. One thing I have learned is that I am not a fan of the modern style. In both decor, and the home itself. Instead of a brand new construction, I would much rather have an older home with charm and history.

The thought of a brand new, move in ready home is....well, boring in my eyes. Call me a weirdo, but I look forward to being able to remodel each of the rooms as I see fit. I don't look at an older home and think "work," I look at it and think "opportunity" and "potential." Yes, I realize this is coming from a girl who has never purchased a home, and hasn't been put to the proverbial test as of yet, but I can't imagine my mind changing. Don't get me wrong, I know the chances of having some major problems are much higher with an older home: i.e. structural issues, electrical problems, mold, etc.. I don't want it to turn into one of these situations:

 But my feeling on the matter is that if the home has good bones, the cosmetic stuff can be fixed and modified as you go. My husband is a web designer, but thank the Lord my daddy is a skilled carpenter! :)

Because I haven't put a lot of thought into all the details of my dream home, I decided to include some items I want in my dream home.

Kitchen

I'm not going to lie, the kitchen is the room that overwhelms me the most. Between the flooring, the appliances, the cabinetry, the back splashes, and light fixtures, that alone is enough to make my head spin. And that's not even the half of it! There are way too many options for me to choose exactly what I would want before the time even comes, so here are just a few details about my future kitchen I would love:

To say I hate white walls would be putting it very mildly. White walls are my kryptonite. However, in the kitchen I do like the idea of white or off-white cabinetry, minus the white walls of course. Of course, I would have to distress them to give them that "worn" look. (I know that when my dad reads this, he will shake his head and curse me for "Ruining a perfectly good piece of wood!?" I will simply remind him that he is my father and he loves me. He has to!) I also love the idea of painting the inside of the cupboards in an accent color! How much fun could you have with that?!

Somewhere along the HGTV road, I was introduced to the farmhouse sink. It was love at first sight. This sink screams my name. (Listen closely, you'll hear it!) They have them in the standard porcelain and even stainless steel, but I'm pretty sure the copper sink is the sink for me. It is reclaimed (which I LOVE,) low maintenance, and copper is even naturally anti-bacterial! Sign me up.

Of course because I had a copper sink, I'm a freak and would need to have copper or brass knobs and pulls for the cabinets. That, ladies and gentleman, is about it for my kitchen wish list at the moment. Altough the possibilities are endless for my "must haves," I'm fairly positive what I do not want in a kitchen, and that is:

This. Although it's a very nice kitchen, it's not for me. Not my style at all. From this kitchen, I don't hear it calling my name, I hear, "Someone else!" :) 

Bathroom

Ever since I was younger, and my friend Tiffany had a claw foot bathtub in her bathroom, I have wanted one. I don't know what it is about my personality that draws me directly in to anything vintage or retro, but I just can't get enough! Again, thanks to HGTV and Bath Crashers, I was introduced to a style of tub I never even knew existed! I would like to introduce you to Jessie's future Bathtub:

Isn't she beautiful?! Like the first bathtub there ever was ;) This style interests me more than a claw foot bathtub, I think, because I wouldn't have to worry about maneuvering a mop under this bad boy. It's a modern spin on a classic idea...and I dig it!

Ryan, bless his misguided heart, tends to be drawn towards the modern looks. This could pose a problem for us. However, throughout the duration of my online hunting, I think I have found a perfect solution to our sink/vanity debacle:

This beautiful piece actually began its life as a dresser. Some brilliant mind re-purposed it, and turned into this gorgeous vanity! I immediately fell in love. I don't think I would like this particular one, as I would much rather have the option of a double sink vanity. But it just shows that if you are willing to think outside of the box, even just a little, you can do amazing things! To satisfy me, we can have a re-purposed dresser that I can turn into exactly what I want it to be. To satisfy Ryan's modern taste, we can have the modern sink and fixtures. I think it mixes perfectly!

Our Bedroom

Recently, I have started projects to decorate our bedroom. Our bedroom still looks as though we just moved in...and we've been here for 2 years. I thought it was time to create a space to call our own.

Last summer, my friend Stephanie came to pick up some antique window panes I was giving her to turn into picture frames. We began talking about the projects we were currently doing, and projects we wanted to do in the future. She mentioned the idea of turning an antique door into a headboard for her bed. WHAT?! You guessed it, I was immediately hooked. My dreams died when we got a king size bed: I thought the door wouldn't be tall enough to reach across the whole bed when you turn it onto its side. Recently, the flame was re-ignited when I found out that it does fit! I got an old door out of my parents' home (that was built in 1903!) that was no longer a functioning door, and am starting the re-purposing process! (Stay tuned for a later blog entry including pictures!) Eventually, it will look similar to this one, but BETTER! (Call me conceited if you'd like, I prefer to look at it as driven haha) The color scheme I would like is gray and mustard yellow.

These are a few other ideas I like as nightstands. You get the idea here: If I wanted my house and its furnishings to look like everyone else's, I'd shop at Ikea. I want something different for our home. Something I helped create.

Jaylinne's Bedroom

Naturally, when Jaylinne gets old enough to choose the decor and style of her room, I will let her run with it. Who knows what that is going to look like!  I'm hoping that as the years pass, she will inherit some of my thirst for  re-purposing and re-finishing, and we can build a dream room for her together! As previously stated, I won't force my style upon her, but one can only hope that her style will guide her to something similar to this:

That's about as far as I have delved into the adventure of dreaming up my idea of the perfect home! I'm sure there are lots of people out there who disagree with my ideas, I'm just hoping one of those people is not Ryan! Here's to hoping....