Beauty and the Beast

Last night I had a girls night out at the Theater with Kate and Reese (Kate is going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding and Reese is the flower girl). We went down to the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas (which is beautiful by the way) to see Beauty and the Beast the musical. Belle is Reese’s favorite princess right now so it was fun to see her get excited about seeing Belle and dancing to “Be Our Guest” in her chair. The musical was really fun to see. It’s very cartoon-like in their sets and everything though. The only real disappointment was Belle’s famous yellow dress. It looked like Belle had just walked off the set of Gone With the Wind. She had all of these flowers in her hair (what about the yellow bow with her hair in a low ponytail?) and there was NO sparkle in the dress. What Disney princess has a dress without sparkles?? Needless to say, I was let down a bit. Be Our Guest was easily the highlight of the night though. Here are some pictures of us at the theater.

Don't Mess With The Dress

Do I have a story for you all! I had my first experience being a feisty bride today. Let’s start from the beginning though. Yesterday afternoon I received a voice mail that started like this, “Hi Jenna, this is Caroline from the Bridal Boutique (where I bought my dress). This doesn’t happen very often but…” But what! Is my dress discontinued? Was it ruined in some fire? What’s going on?! These are all of the things that went through my mind. The message continued on to explain that some girl out there in the world wanted my dress because he wedding was coming up shortly and they wouldn’t have the standard 6 months to make hers. So, the designer wanted to know if I would be willing to give up my dress to the girl and then they would put a rush on my dress and I would receive mine about a month and a half later than I had expected. She said I didn’t have to give her my dress but the designer wanted to ask. My heart was filled with compassion in thinking that every girl deserved to get her dream wedding dress. That lasted for about a minute until I realized that I had followed all of the right rules: I went to try on wedding dresses well in advance, planned time in the schedule of events for my dress to be made, already had my bridal portraits planned based on when I would get my dress and when the alterations could be done. I had all of my ducks in a row, why should I get the added stress of some bridal store somewhere in the country re-ordering my dress and possible getting it wrong or not having enough time for alterations. Let’s just say sympathy quickly flew out the window. I think bridal sympathy gets checked at the door when another bride whom you do not know starts to infringe on your day.

So this morning, I called back once the store opened with the decision already made to unfortunately say no to giving my dress up. The lady seemed to have changed her tune when I spoke with her today. She went from “you don’t have to do this” to “we do this a lot and typically the brides so ‘of course you can give her the dress!’” Well I for one would like to speak to these brides. I expressed my concerns that if I didn’t get my dress until October, we would have time for alterations before my bridal portraits. To which she responded by asking if I could call my photographer and ask to reschedule. Well let me just rearrange my wedding for this girl I don’t know, who for all I know is a very poor planner, a spoiled girl who decided she no longer liked the dress she already bought, or is having a shotgun wedding and needs a dress last minute. The kicker was still to come though. I finally told the woman that unfortunately I didn’t want to give up my dress. She said “ok, well I’ll call this poor little girl and tell her she can’t have it.” REALLY?! I’m sorry! Shouldn’t you be looking out for the person who spent the money in YOUR store and who YOUR client is?! After she made that comment I knew I had made the right decision. That concludes my first experience being a little feisty in the bridal department.

San Diego

Today is my first day back since the trip to San Diego for the 4th of July. Casey and I took his good friend Justin out with us so he could experience California for the first time. It was a great trip! We spent the first night touring downtown and visited Coronado, the Gas Lamp District, and had ice cream at Ghirardelli’s. Saturday we ate breakfast at the Green Flash right on the ocean and followed it up by playing bocce ball and lying out at the beach. The Kuptz family came over for dinner that night. It was so much fun to get to see everyone and catch up. Sunday the boys played disc golf and my mom and I did what we do best…SHOP! We celebrated the 4th down at La Jolla overlooking the beach. The Marine band gave a great show and it was easily the best firework show I have ever seen. I usually feel cheated on the 4th because I think the show was too short, but this one was the perfect length! Monday was a time to relax by the pool and take naps. Dad cooked a great meal and my mom and I got to have girl time and watch The Bachelorette.

Wedding Website

I am finishing up the final touches on our wedding website but I wanted you all to be able to see check it out. Just know that it isn't completely finished yet. You will be able to go here and get information about the wedding, see where we are registered, and see pictures of us with our wedding party.

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JennaHill&CaseyWilliams

The Warriors

Casey and I survived the Warrior Dash!! Casey was the true warrior though. He had been throwing up sick the night before the race and didn’t feel good at all the next day but was determined to finish the race. We went through all of the obstacles together which included: “Tornado Ally” (a fan boat blowing on you), several mud pits, swimming through a bog and under logs, climbing over giant spools and hay bales, with a finale of hurdling over fire and crawling through mud under barbed wire. It was quite the adventure and an accomplishment. The only downside of the event was that they promised fire trucks to hose people off after the race. Well, the fire trucks turned into one man holding a hose. We waited in line for over 45 minutes to get hosed off. Here are the before and after pictures of us at the race (Casey’s friend Justin is the other guy in the photos)

Food Revolution

Casey and I have been watching famous Chef, Jamie Oliver’s, Food Revolution TV series together. We’ve learned a lot about the food served in America’s schools. One thing that Jamie focused on was the sugary milks that are served to the kids. In schools, kids have a choice of either regular milk, strawberry milk, or chocolate milk. The schools just want the kids to get calcium and they figure that the kids are more likely to drink milk if it’s flavored. Well, apparently the chocolate and strawberry milks have just as much sugar in them as a soda does. Also, the strawberry milk has the most calories.

This week, Casey decided to educate the kids in his Technology class about the differences in the types of milks that they have a choice of at lunch. He told the lunch lady to watch to see if the kids start to drink more regular milk. She (just like the lunch lady on Jamie Oliver’s show) told Casey he wouldn’t be able to change what the kids drink. If it’s one thing I’ve learned, do not tell Casey that he can’t do something because he will take it as a challenge and WILL prove you wrong. Tuesday, Casey noticed only a handful of kids chose to switch to the regular milk. Tuesday, he continued to educate the kids and encouraged them to look at the nutrition facts on the milk bottles to verify that what he was saying was in fact true. He told some of the other teachers what he had been teaching the kids and they all supported him and though what he was doing was great. One teacher who has a daughter in Casey’s class told him that when her daughter came home that day, she preceded to inform her mom all about the nutritional facts of milk and her mom was really impressed. By Wednesday he was seeing bigger results so he started graphing the amount of kids who chose regular milk by grade. For example, the first day, only about 4 3rd graders took regular milk. The next time, there were 32 that took the regular milk. The kids really liked seeing the graph I his class. Yesterday, Casey called me and told me that he was causing some chaos at the school. The librarian had informed him that the lunch lady stormed into the principal’s office to complain about what Casey was doing. Turns out, that day at lunch, kids were holding up the line to look at nutrition facts on bottles and she ran out of regular milk! Kids were saying that they had to drink regular milk and she didn’t have any to give them. Casey told me that at lunch, the school has 1 crate of regular milk, 1 crate of strawberry, and 3-4 of chocolate daily. He ran into the principal several times that day and she never said anything.

I’m so proud of him for inspiring his kids and creating his own Food Revolution!!!! Keep it up Casey!

Blonde Moment

Ok, so yesterday at work some virus attacked all of our computers so IT had to come around and personally install patches on all of our computers. Well my “go-to” IT guy had finished installing the patch and he told me to log-in to my computer to make sure it worked. As my computer began to boot up, the picture on my desktop popped up (see pic above). When he saw the picture, he asked, “Where are you in that picture?” I thought this guy must be blind as I pointed to myself in the picture and said “This is me. I’m here.” He just looked at me and then said, “No, I know that’s YOU but WHERE are you?” Immediately, I realized my co-worker had just witnessed a great Jenna blonde moment. I laughed and I told him that we were in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. After that, he just laughed and said “Wow, you’re not THAT blonde.”