Finally!

So I guess one could say that I have fallen off the face of the "blogging" world.

I am back at least for today. :0)

Here is somethings that have kept us busy:

Thanks to the rainy June weekend we spent some

significant time dealing with a wet basement.

Thanks to all those that helped.

We vacationed to Alaska. What a place! This is Dan's prized souvenir.

And I was able to spend sometime with a dear friend from NY.
We always enjoy catching up.

Saw it coming a mile away!

This post is for my friends and family that love The Bachelor as much as I do.
I have to admit that I did now what was going to happen last night. Like I said in my previous post, I loved watching this season. That was until about 3 weeks ago when my lurking uncovered three 10 minute home videos of a man who goes by the name Reality Steve.

Reality Steve has given us information and clues in many of the past seasons. In fact, his track record for knowing how things end is quite impressive. He admits to having a inside connection that works close with the show. Those 3 videos went on to tell me in detail everything that was going to happen last night. I was even told that Melissa would take her ring off and give it to Jason. After seeing those videos, I honestly started hoping he was wrong.

So here is my feelings.
* Melissa and Jason broke up before taping of the After the Final Rose.
* She was mad he broke up with her, so she said that he needed to explain it to America. Oh, and that he could look like the bad guy by breaking her heart. She was not going to go along with it after all she felt he didn't even give it a chance.
* I do believe that since the breakup happened before the taping of ATFR, they are contracted to share there personal life with America at that taping. (By the way, the ATFR 1 was taped around January 24. The ATFR 2 was taped the very end of Feburary.)
*Oh, and I have very mixed feelings about things being set up by ABC. I truley don't know that Jason and his fabulous acting skills :) could pull the wool over our eyes. If he did, he should have gone into acting a long time ago.
* I do feel bad for Melissa. I am sure this is not at all what she thought she was signing up for.
However, I do not know Melissa, and maybe just maybe Jason is being nice by not giving us a real reason for their relationship not working. Maybe she is not who she was edited to be, or maybe some terrible skeleton raised its ugly head.

Does anyone else feel like we should all just forget about Jason and this entire mess and a new season of The Bachelorette should begin. Go Jillian!!! Obviously I am routing for her to be the next bachelorette.
I would love to hear your comments so please feel free to share!

Same story, just another season.

In one of my very first posts on this blog I shared my feelings about the television show The Bachelor. I have watched almost every season and still have not learned my lesson. I guess my heart does not ache too much over all the failed engagements and heartbreak. And so the saga has continued:

We are currently in the 13Th season of The Bachelor. And yes, I have not missed an episode. Over all I have really enjoyed watching this handsome single dad search for the love of his life. His name, Jason Mesnick, a bachelor who we met last season on The Bachelorette, vying for DeAnna's love and affection. I guess you could say that America "fell in love" with Jason. His proposal was rejected by DeAnna in last season's finale, and thus ABC finding it perfectly fitting for him to begin his search on this season of The Bachelor.

I will be honest, I looked more forward to this season than any other season before. I was so excited to see Jason look for love. On Monday, January 5Th the season started, and after just a couple of episodes it seemed we were finally getting the love story we all wanted. Jason's connection with one of the 25 bachelorettes, Melissa, was hard to miss. Even though, I didn't really even like her. To me she seemed young and immature. My favorite bachelorette this season hands down was JILLIAN. She was unfortunately let go when Jason had to make his top three his final two. But I guess that is beside the point. Not that many weeks ago word got out that things were going to get crazy. So there I sat, every episode, oh and did I mention I even frequented a couple spoiler websites. Call me crazy, oh and click on that link at your own risk. You may be disappointed with what you read. I tried to figure out possible outcomes, possible crazy twists, and what kind of ending would leave my jaw on the floor.

So here we are again. Tomorrow is the season finale. We will find out whether he picks Melissa from Texas or Molly who just so happens to be from Grand Rapids. I have my theories, my ideas about the jaw dropping finale, and my speculations about what is true and untrue. I will just have to wait and see.

I thought it fitting to have a Bachelor Season Finale Party, so tomorrow some friends and myself will watch the last episode together. And, no I don't expect my jaw to drop and I have prepared myself for many different scenarios. Besides I think I might know too much. :)

So if you are I fan of the show, enjoy tomorrow night! We will talk again soon.

Wonderful One Year!

Not only did Dan & I have a wonderful first year of marriage, but we also have had a wonderful 1st Anniversary.

I got these flowers form Dan earlier in the week. It was a great surprize.
We had a fun filled weekend planned. We started with seeing Gran Torino in Grandville. It wasn't the most romantic movie, but we both thought it was a terrific. After the movie I was able to sneak in some shopping before we made our way back to the place where our marriage began, the Amway Grand Plaza.

It brought back great memories being there. We even visited the room where we got married and the ballroom where we had our reception.
We ate at Cygnus 27 located on the 27th floor of the Amway. We highly recommend it. It was spectacular! Great food, fabulous view, and fun atmosphere.

For dessert, they brought out a cake. A nice treat, especially because it looked and tasted like the cake we ate one year ago today. And it didn't end there. They brought out a champagne toast for us and chocolate fondue to finish off the meal.
Today we enjoyed a lovely brunch at Charlie's Crab. We ate almost everything. Salad, stuffed french toast, crab legs, and many plates of dessert.

Here I am with some crab legs. Dan was nervous that I would pull a "Pretty Woman" and end up flinging something across the dining room of this resturatant.

And here is Dan with his second plate of dessert.

It was a memorable weekend.

Better late than never!

Last night we had our annual Ugly Sweater and White Elephant Christmas Party. It was at Brad & Rebecca's house and turned out to be quite a success.

Great food, fun games, and unbelievably funny sweaters.

Here are some photos from the evening. ENJOY!