Summer Catch-up!

Things have been busy around the Bing house, and I have had no energy to blog, I still don't, but I didn't want to fall further behind in my blogging. I enjoy doing it and I enjoy reading everyone else's. I've been working lots at Chapters and still enjoying it, I love being surrounded by books, organizing them, and reading them it's great. Lately I've been working over night as we've been preparing for some renovations in our kids area, it's going to be AWESOME when it's done, the area is getting bigger and more interactive for kids. I didn't mind the over nights, I made sure to have a nap before, and made sure to just keep moving and they were not so bad at all! I won't say I'm not glad they are over, it's feeling good to get back in a normal sleep routine, and to be back on the sales floor helping people and talking books.

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During my over night work weeks, we had some busy time. One of my closest friends from elementary school, Laura got married. It was a fun week leading up to the wedding. It started on Sunday afternoon with a bridal tea party for the bride to be, we wore fun hats and played great games. It was a lot of fun. I think what made it the most fun was having all my girl friends together, Denise was in town from Ontario, Nicole was in town from out west and Meg joined us later on from Ontario too. It was a blast catching up and laughing together!

All the girls at the tea party... there were some awesome hats there!

Wednesday brought a trip to the spa, we all get pedicures, it was great to sit, be pampered and laugh like crazy. I'd never gotten a pedicure, so it was a lot of fun and my toes were a very pretty color for the wedding.

Here is a group shot from the spa!

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Friday was a busy day, we found out that the twins were going home earlier then we planned. So Keah had to make a quick trip home to get things tidy, and grab some food, all in prep for her girls going home. That left mike down at the hospital with his two girls, and a recovering knee from surgery. So mom and I both headed down to give him a hand. I loved every minute of that afternoon, I got to snuggle with both girls, it was awesome. From there I headed to my first wedding rehearsal, it was a lot of fun, and we all got a little teary as Laura practiced walking down the isle with her dad. We gathered for some food at her parents house and she gave all the girls sweet gifts, even the honorary bridesmaid, which I was one.

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Saturday brought BIG things. Emmy and Finley went home to bridgewater and Laura and Mark got married! I'll share some wedding pic's first. The morning was overcast, and I saw Laura in the morning getting her hair done, and she'd come down with a cold, poor girl! Things perked up though, the weather cleared up, and Laura was able to get herself feeling a little better. It was BEAUTIFUL day for a wedding, the service was simple but pretty, with a quote from The Notebook being read, the couple love that movie. Mark got a little teary during the service and it was so sweet. We all headed to the dingle afterwards for picture time. It was great snapping away and making more memories from this special day! We had a blast and laughed a lot. The reception was later on in the evening, and it was a great celebration of the couple. I loved having my friends and Brandon around, the girls are getting to know Brandon a lot more and it's awesome. They just love him and think that he is hilarious! We were able to dance and have a blast with everyone before Brandon had to go to work. Laura and Mark are a beautiful couple and had a perfect wedding day!! Love you guys!

Mr. & Mrs Mark and Laura Lantz!!

Laura and all her girls, bridesmaids, honorary bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids and flower girl! So many ladies who love this bride so much!

Mrs.Bing and Mrs. Lantz... friends since grade primary!

Honorary bridesmaids having some jumpin' fun!

The wedding party having some jumping fun... Mark is awesome in this picture!

Brandon and I sitting at table six... he's always a great sport at my friends weddings. He is always tired from working the night before, but he smiles, has fun and takes pictures whenever I ask him to. Thanks sweetie you are the best!

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Another great moment of that Saturday was that Finley and Emmy were released from the hospital and headed home to bridgewater. They made a stop at mom and dad's to meet their cousins. Which was such a wonderful moment. The kids were BEYOND excited to finally see and hold their little cousins, Miss Georgia especially. Brandon and I had been down thursday to visit and cuddle the girls, and then I went again and Friday, so I resisted every urge to hold the girlies again and just let the cousins enjoy the moment. I made sure to snap lots of pictures though. Here are just a couple from that day!

Sweaty kid Cooper... all he wanted to do was touch the babies!

isn't he just a handsome little boy... his hair goes super blonde in the summer- Love you Jake

EEK! she is growing up way to fast, she'll be in the double digits next year and that blows my mind, it feels like yesterday that Jessica entered my world, and I love her to bits, we've spent a lot of time together as she's grown up!

A family with three beautiful daughters, how did they get so lucky! Sarah Grace has awesome curls, and a perfect little smile. She turns EIGHT this year and will get baptized, I'm so excited for her!

I love this shot of the girls, their dad and their cousin!! Sarah is holding Finley and Mike is holding Emmy!

Georgia couldn't stay away, she loves her new cousins, this is her with her mom and her cousin Emmy!

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We headed over to my in-laws for a visit with Brandon's aunt who was in town. We hadn't seen her since our wedding, so it was wonderful to visit with her and catch up. We hit the lake, and did some boating. Ian loved the explorer 200, and was determined to pump it up and enjoy it on the lake. The boys also did some wake boarding and water skiing. I wish I had a bigger zoom to catch some shots, maybe next time. We also stopped in to visit Meg and Jason, I hadn't seen Meg in a few weeks and her little baby bump has grown so much. She had her first ultra sound and all is good with Baby Stewart, at the beginning of August they find out if the baby will be a boy or a girl, and they've invited the family to be there, I'm thrilled to have the day off and can't wait to find out if I'll have another niece or nephew! After a delicious BBQ dinner we had a bon fire and set off some fireworks. It was the first night that it actually felt like summer vacation and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Ian working on pumping up the boat

taking aunt beckey out on the boat

Meaghan and he adorable baby bump

Outside enjoying the little fire work show!

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Following later on in that week was the arrival of my latest little niece. Clara Lane Nelson was born at 11:51 on Thursday July 22nd. She weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. and is a total cutie. I worked an over nighter the night she was born, Sonja text messaged me at 11:36 and Clara was born shortly after, Sonja is a champ at baby delivery! The next day as soon as I grabbed some sleep, we headed down to meet little Clara and snap a bunch of pictures. We had a nice visit and some great snuggles. She looks a lot more like her daddy, whereas her siblings look more like mom, I'm interested to see what she'll look like in a few months when she passes the new born stage. She's a total doll and I can't wait to go visit again!

Clara Lane Nelson... she is adorable with big hands, maybe she'll play the piano

Oh I just love new born babies. I could snap pictures of them all day!

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Brandon and I went and saw the movie Inception this afternoon, and it was awesome. I love a movie that makes you think and pay attention. I'm not always a lover of Leo, but he looked quite handsome in this movie, also enjoyed Joseph Gordon Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, and 500 days of Summer) he was awesome in this movie. I also finished reading a book this week too, I feel I should start sharing more about the books I'm reading. I've been reading thr Sookie Stackhouse books, also known as True Blood. I have one more to read in the series, but they've been great so far, they can be a little racey in some spots, but the story and the characters are awesome. Brandon and I have been enjoying talking about them and comparing the books and the show, I read them he watches them... If you enjoy Vampire books, you'd enjoy these books. I'm now reading Charlie St.Cloud, and am so excited to start it tonight, and then see the movie.

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Hope you've been having a great summer and keep those updates coming!

Winery Wedding- Jess & Chris

I'm super tired right now, but I needed to keep my posting streak up, plus I'm enjoying the daily posting myself. I'm tired today because Brandon and I went to our friends Jessica and Chris' wedding in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. It was held at the Grand Pre Winery and it was a perfect setting for their perfect day. The weather turned from a grey day to a beautiful sunny afternoon. I took over 150 pictures, so here are just a few fav's from the day!

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I should let you know, the day wasn't all smooth sailing for us, we arrived at the ceremony 10 minutes late because we took one stupid wrong turn, it was a combination of bad moves on both mine and Brandon's part and we lost about 20 minutes from our time getting to the wedding. Let's just say both of us have a STRONG dislike for Sackville, if you get off the highway it seems to be almost impossible to get back on. I was very bummed I missed Jess' grand entrance, but I made it for the rest of the ceremony, so I can't complain too much. Standing actually allowed us to have a good view and take some great pictures!

This was the picture we walked into at the beautiful winery, the terrace was all stone and they were surrounded by vines and plants, it was perfect. The wedding colors were perfect, I love the brown and green and the boys and the blue on the girls. Jess has some awesome wedding style!

They are ready to be pronounced husband and wife, look at the love that both of them have on their faces, it was so wonderful!

The priest marrying them almost forgot to give them a first kiss, but they made sure they got it in... don't they just look picture perfect!

making their exit as Mr. & Mrs.- they looked so great

Glad I was there to catch the shots as they walked down the isle

Brandon and I were lucky to get to spend some time with the girls from the B.Ed program. Brandon took this shot and it turned out really awesome. These are the girls, minus the bride, wish we could have gotten her in... Back- Krista, Aleah, Amy, Julia and Andrea. Front- Meg and Me!

After the ceremony they had a cocktail time, with drinks and delicious appetizers, we had to be careful not to fill up on them too much. I enjoyed the brushetta the most, it was so fresh and light for the summer, delicious!

We ventured up with Meg and Andrea to look at the growing grapes, and take some pictures, I thought this one turned out nice of Brandon and I in our shades!

Me and my two red head B.ED girls, they are both so funny and sweet, glad I was able to spend some time with them!

I LOVED the boutiner that the guys wore, they were made of material, so they guys can keep them, instead of having real flowers that just fall apart and die. Jess had a similar flower in her hair... such an awesome idea!

we ran into the happy couple while they were finishing up their photo shoot, so we stayed and took some too... just beautiful!

seriously this location was amazingly beautiful for pictures

I loved the wooden arches and trellis' I had to get a picture of this table of beautiful ladies!

Brandon was in his glory... so many dates for him!

The tent where the reception was held... it also looked awesome with all the lanterns in their wedding colors

The beautiful bride taking in her reception

Me and the Bride... she is probably my best friend from the program and I'm so glad I was able to celebrate her special day with her. Love you Jess! ( Yuck why do I look so fat!)

The food tonight was AMAZING! Brandon and I started with this root salad with horseradish which was very different but delicious. They they served this little scoop of gelato, that was grape and tea, with fresh mint, to clean the palate, which was delicious... the mint made your breath amazing. They we had Beef with vegetables, which was so delicious, Brandon said it was probably the best beef he'd ever had. Then there was an apple tart for dessert. We didn't get to try the cake since we had to leave early :( But it looked delicious as well!

Chris and Jess had a little table for two, and then their wedding party and their significant others sat at tables on either side of them... thought that was a great idea! loved their little banner too!

This was one of the best ideas I have ever seen for a guest book, and wish I had of done it, they used an actual book as their guest book, a story book, I don't know which one, but it was a cartoonish type book, and the guests wrote at the beginning and end. Laura I thought of you for this one... you could have a pictorial nova scotia book and a washington one, and have guests sign them, and then when you are living in Utah you have a memory of both! or something similar to their idea- LOVED it!

Jess and Chris cutting their cake, loved that they used barrels as tables- so creative- the seating chart although I didn't get a picture was made up of all corks to continue the winery theme, I don't know if they made it or if it was provided... either way it was cool!

The Bing's enjoying the reception

They played the cute game where they hold up the shoe to answer a question- there was some great laughs from this game.

Jess being so sweet, made sure that our seats didn't have wine glasses, since we don't drink which I thought I was super cute. The servers forgot towards the end and brought everyone at the table these glasses, I didn't drink mine, but I thought it would make a great picture!

The delicious dessert, seriously check out the presentation... the little flower is a beautiful added touch

Brandon had to work tonight so we had to leave the reception early. Where the meal was a four course meal it took a little longer, and so we didn't get to see the first dance, which I was so bummed about, I told my friends though to snap lots of pictures, I hope someone did. This was on the drive home at about 9:15 pm, we were driving into some thick fog.

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I didn't post the picture but Jess' parents got up and spoke, and her dad did a beautiful job, he spoke about how his children were his best accomplishment, and how he and he wife joked when they got married that they would have a basketball team, which they did when they had five children, Jess' dad continued on to say, that since he is a good coach, he knew that they needed one more person on the team, a spare person for substitution, so they had to complete the team and have one more child... he was much funnier telling the story, I'm not doing it any justice.

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One other funny comment was that they were talking about how Jess and Chris have been together since 11th grade, and that they were high school sweet hearts, and that they have a lot in common, Jess is the oldest of six and Chris is the oldest of one... it was a HOOT!!

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To make the couple sing tonight you had to sing a song about love, all the tables were really getting into it which was a lot of fun. Being a table of teachers plus two of Chris' friends, we felt a Lion King song would be appropriate, so we sang the Timone and Pumba version of Can you feel the love tonight... it was awesome!

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I'm sure that there is more to share, but I'm just so tired I can't think about it. It was a beautiful day for an amazing couple. They are off on Monday on a dream honeymoon to France, Italy and somewhere else. They'll have a blast I'm sure! I'm hoping to get all the other pictures posted on facebook tomorrow so check them out.

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One last thing before I go to bed... loved the world cup today... watched the live Uraguay Korea game which was awesome.. Uraguay won 2-1 and had some awesome goals. Was shocked to come home to find out the Ghana beat the US 2-1, I really thought the US was making it through to the next round. I have to say though, the US had a sweet free kick, the goalie was no where near the ball, the kicker (Donovan maybe?) had such a nice curve on the ball, it sailed where he wanted it to, hit the post and went in- it was perfect!! England plays tomorrow, I do love them, so fingers crossed. My main team is Spain though with Torres!! Anyway off to bed, I can barely keep my eyes open.

Things that made me smile tonight...

I love a day when you come home tired from work, and suddenly get a boost of energy, and your ready to get things done... that is me tonight and I'm loving it. I'm in such a silly happy smiley mood and it's GREAT. Want to know some of the things that are making me smile... here we go...

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1. I came home from work tonight and went to the gym: Brandon bought me a gym membership for my birthday (don't worry I wanted it) and I've really been trying to go at least 4 times a week, if not more. I'm usually there for about 90 minutes, and it makes me happy. I feel better when I go to the gym, and slowly the results I want will come. I love when I can read a good magazine at the gym or watch some world cup soccer- it's awesome!

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2. I love the card that I'm currently working on for a wedding tomorrow: I first made this card a few years ago and loved it, and then I evolved it into my own creation for Jeremy's birthday card and then I'm doing it again, with this wedding card. It's super adorable and fun, and I'll share it with you after the wedding tomorrow. I'm a LOVER of stampin' up punches, which I need more and of googlie eyes... they make cards so much more fun, and I plan to use them on many cards in the future

3. Fernando Torres: Don't tell Brandon another man is making me smile tonight, but he is and he's a new favorite of mine. I first noticed him tonight at the gym (my gym is all women) he was on the tv screen, playing my favorite sport (soccer) and he was looking adorable doing it... then he moved and his skill made me smile that much more. He is playing in the world cup for Spain, but he normally plays for liverpool. He's 26, and wears my favorite sports number 9... hello he is meant to be my fav, right!? His team won today, with some GREAT goals... hello open net... but he was injured a little, see he just had surgery on his right knee in April, so fingers crossed he'll be a-okay for the next game. I'm a BIG fan!!

4. SYTYCD Ashley and Mark's routine this week: I like Ashley this season, i do, and this week I think her routine was awesome. I could be biased because 1- I love Mark from his season, hello bleedin' love routine (youtube it!) LOVED IT! and 2- I also love Travis as a dancer and choreographer which he was tonight, (see the bench routine from his season, and the locket routine that he choreographed for Mark and Jeanine-amazing). I don't know what it was about this routine but I loved it and it made me smile... probably one I will reference in future seasons of this show.

5. SYTYCD- Lauren and Dominic: They did lyrical hip hop, and it was a story centered around getting the message out, about abuse, and it was beautifully done. Dom, who is usually joking around and so funny, did a great job being serious, he's a CRAZY awesome dancer (he was on and won America's best dance crew-youtube it) They would be such a cute couple.. I think that made me like it more for that reason too!

6. SYTYCD- Kent and Courtney: although this wasn't a fav routine of the night, this guy just makes you smile and laugh. Tonight he had to do this sexy routine, which was way out of his element. He's a small town country boy who is 18, to watch him dance with courtney was great, he was too cute and funny! Check him out!

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There are lots of other things that made me smile today, but those are just a few. One more quick one to mention is that the Downeast Basic's dress that I ordered for my friends wedding arrived today and I think it's going to be PERFECT for the wedding in July!

Hope you all had a GREAT Friday and that you have an awesome weekend.

Question: What do you love today??

Oh and still looking for more book recommendations... the more you share with me the more I can read and share with my customers!!