I remember hearing about this accident in the news and I didn’t completely make the connection.  Plus with all the wedding hoopla I didn’t have time to think much about anything.  I was reading Ali’s blog like I do everyday and she had a post about this family.  I don’t know the family but I am familiar with Domestic Bliss and their Blissful Studio, I am such a fan/admirer of what they have done over there for the creative community.  I am deeply touched by their outpouring of generosity to help.  I’m posting their information here to get the word out, I don’t know how much I can help but I am believer that every little bit counts.  Please say prayers for this amazing Arizona family.

If you would like to help or for more information please visit their benefit blog.

I’ll be blogging on the wedding blog this week.  Head over there for all the fun.

This has got to be the most craziest week ever in my life!  I have so much to do and so little time.  For my wedding guests that read this blog, head over to www.hannafin.com/blog for wedding updates right up to the big day!

There is a lot that I want to say about what has been going on but this isn’t the right venue.  I will say that I am not at all angry or upset over recent events.  Very disappointed?  Yes.  I’ll leave it at that. 

Overall I’m clam but I have had a few mini-freakouts, yesterday was the worst.  I’ve made plans for the orchard tour the day after the wedding, and I made my list of stuff I can’t forget to do.  The list is huge!  And I feel a wee bit overwhelmed.  And now Courtney and I are coming down with colds.  Great, super, fabulous!  I can’t be sick, I need to keep moving.

We went down to Tempe Splash park first thing this morning with the twins.  The park was reopened today so I figured if we got there first it will be the cleanest it’s ever been.  You can see Courtney, Reilly and me in the video, and there is a couple of shots of Jack from far away.

We weren’t there for very long, right when we were leaving vans full of daycare kids showed up.  That would have been totally crazy if we had stayed.  The boys had fun.  I’ll post some pictures later.

**UPDATE** I took down the video because it was causing errors and pissing me off.

I got four pages done last night which is a lot for me.  I normally have a hard time getting my ideas on to paper, but last night once I got going there was no stopping.  I haven’t scrapbooked since March and not since I started my meds.  I really felt energized and creative, I haven’t felt that in a really long time.  I posted the layouts on TwoPeas.  I still have more to scrap but of course now I’m distracted.  It doesn’t help that G4 is running a Heroes marathon today.

Fern and David are in town this week.  Tonight it’s dinner at the other Hannafin house, BBQ chicken, yum!  Phoenix is getting the leftovers from Dolly so it’s freaking hot and humid today.  So not fun but I guess that’s why we all have pools.  Pools don’t do much good when its this hot, it’s like swimming in bathwater.

I have SQL training next week which will get me away from the office for a few days.  Hopefully I can gasp the information and it sticks.  I really want to figure out if I’m cut out for programming.  The Cisco classes helped steer me in that direction.  What stinks though is that I let Snapper do all the work on our labs.  I really need to take the last two classes over or at least do all the labs so I can grasp the material.  I’m going to start taking on a bit more at work.  Hopefully, that will give me better ammo for a promotion next January.  The other path is project management.  Snapper thinks I’m perfect for that role, and he’s probably right, it is a natural progression for me.  The thought of having the success of a project hinge on me makes me ill.  That’s what what stressing me out in my last role.  If I made a mistake then someone might not get their bonus, and I hated that feeling.  I would much rather be told what needs to be done and get it done.  I do have project management training in two weeks, if anything it will help me have a better understanding of how things get done.

Have a safe weekend!

I got this nasty gram from my ex-friend Joey yesterday afternoon.  I won’t go into details but basically he read the previous entry and was now upset.  What puzzels me about it is that I thought this was all done and over with like weeks ago, I didn’t understand why he had such a delayed reaction.  When I told him that our friendship was over a couple of weeks ago I thought I had made myself pretty clear.  I’m not sure if he just decided to not believe me or what.  Whatever.

Moving on....Just over thirty days until the big day.  I have a feeling that time is just going to fly by now.  The dress fitting went really well.  They are making the bustle and I should have the dress back in two weeks.  The menus are done and have been sent off to the Inn, just waiting on the cost now.  Courtney still has to decide on what color of Vans the guys are going to wear.  I’ve got him down to two, red or black, I think he’s leaning towards black.  Maggie’s flower girl dress arrived and is now being sent back because the bodice is the wrong color.  It came in ivory when it should have been red like the skirt.  No biggie.  The twins have their ring bearer outfits done, they are going to look so cute!

Speaking of the twins, they are growing so fast.  Their birthdays are coming up and they have asked for special cakes this year.  Reilly wants a farm cake and Jack wants a robot cake.  Cathy and I are going to have our hands full making those.  Which reminds me, I need to order their birthday presents soon.  So much to do!

I’ve had little spurt of motivation today.  I’m slowly clearing off my craft table and once it’s clean maybe then I’ll have the motivation to actually scrapbook a little.  I still feel like all the scrapbook stuff is out of control in that room.  I still haven’t figured out a good system for storing the embellishments and such.  Everything needs to have a home and right now that’s not happening. 

Tomorrow morning I am going to a wedding dress fitting.  This is after they have done the first round of alterations and to decide on the bustle.  It’s all getting too real.  In six weeks everything will change.  Courtney’s wedding ring has arrived and it’s really nice.  We decided that each of us will pick out the rings and just be surprised.  Although I have given Courtney a few nudges in the right direction.  We are still undecided about the menu for the reception.  One would think that two chef’s could figure something out by now.  I think I’m putting too many expectations on it, it just needs to simple, and reflect us. 

There will be one less guest attending the wedding, which I knew was coming but I had hopes that he would prove me wrong.  Joey has made the decision not to come.  The excuse...because he’s too new at his job and he can’t ask for the time off.  Whatever, that’s all crap.  My family and friends have known about this wedding since last August.  Joey made the choice to remain unemployed all winter and didn’t get a job until just recently.  This was completely in his hands and he had plenty of chances to choose a different path.  This may sound really harsh for those who don’t know the history, but it’s time for me to end this relationship and move on.  There were several emails back and forth and he said that I was stupid for ending the friendship.  It’s been a few weeks and I still feel that it was the best decision for me. This is bigger than just not coming to the wedding.  Joey has consistently let me down as a friend and each time I looked past it.  Not anymore.  I’m done. 

I also decided to get a second job.  I’m freaked out about the state of our economy and I just want to put some extra $$ in the bank for emergencies.  I’ve applied at a couple of places and so far I’ve only had one response, which did not lead to a job.  The wedding conflicted with the training, which totally stinks.  There is one job that I will be really excited to get, and it’s only 1/2 a mile down he road.  Cross your fingers for me!

If you haven’t already seen it, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is up and running...I told you guys that NPH is awesome!

I am all geeked out on the new iphone 2.0 update.  It’s all I can think about.  I’ve been playing with all the new apps and I’m am loving my phone even more than I did before.  I’m not getting the new 3G phone just yet.  I like the metal back on the 1st generation iphones so much more, feels more elegant than the plastic back.  Plus I don’t like that ATT hiked up the fees for iphone owners, I would be paying more per month which totally sucks.  Here are current favorite apps:

Pandora
This has got to be my most favorite app.  I love that I can listen to my favorite tunes/artists on my phone.  It’s like Depeche Mode is in my purse all the time.

Evernote
I have this on my MacBook also.  When I’m at work and I want to remember to look something up at home this app will allow you to paste a screenshot of what you need and when you get home you can go back to it.  The cool thing is that you can add tags to your stuff so you can search for more easily.  The screenshot function is by far my favorite feature.

Twitterific
The dudes at IconFactory are geniuses.  I have been a fan of their work for a longtime and love all their apps.  They make my Mac desktop pretty with al their cute icons.  If you are on Twitter, this is a must have app.

Speaking of Twitter, I am sorry for all the panic yesterday morning on my feed.  I was so excited about the new update and when it ibricked my phone I thought I was going to loose everything.  By Noon everything was back to normal.

I have been tossing around the thought of getting a second job for some time now.  I decided to apply at the Apple store.  It may be defeating my goal of bringing in extra cash, but it’s something that I can get excited about which is more than I can say for my real job right now.  I wanted a second job that was going to be fun and I think this will be a great experience.

Courtney and I have also been playing with our Flip this week.  I’ll post some videos soon.  I’m waiting on MobileMe to workout the kinks before I upload the videos.

I don’t have much going on this weekend which is a nice break.  The last two weekends have been jammed pack.  As usual I have tons of laundry to do, most of which is thanks to Courtney’s MRSA infection.  We have to wash his clothes and towels everyday to keep the infection from spreading.  Not fun.  Oh, I did get a microderm facial yesterday.  It did wonders to my face!  I went to see Kathy at Scosh Skincare Studio.  This was my first treatment and my skin is noticeably clearer and smoother.  I got the package deal, $150 for three treatments.  I have sun damage on my shoulders from my many years of being on the swim team, Kathy also took care of that for me.  While the hyper-pigmentation will not go away completely it will get lighter and that’s fine with me.  I just want to look my best on my wedding day.  If you are in the metro Phoenix area, I highly recommend Scosh if you are looking for skincare treatments. 

I’m gonna dig into my laundry and get things done today! 

Why NPH is awesome:

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

NPH in a musical??  That is so awesome!  I can’t wait to see it.  You can read more about it on Valleywag.

My photo of the sunset surrounded by the smoke from the fire in the west valley made it on to AZFamily.com!  Yeah me!

Wait for it....DARY!!!!

Click for the full size image

These are the chewy chocolate cookies from Martha Stewart Cookies.  They are suppose to be rolled in sanding sugar but I didn’t have that so I used granulated instead.  Well during baking the sugar melted.  I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming.  I grabbed the Heidi Swapp chipboard and used the negative space as a template.  I think it turned out rather well and they are still really yummy.