Meg{Moir}

Finally, Patrick is home to stay. Finally, finally, finally.

I managed to check off everything from the list I made on Friday, with the exception of bathing the dogs and finishing the thank you notes. There are only about 15 left and Patrick wanted to write some of them. We’ll get to them soon though, I want them off my coffee table and in to the hands of those wonderful people who made our wedding such a blessing to us.

Not much else to report. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

I had a great weekend with my mom! She came bearing football tickets to the NC State vs. Maryland game, and we actually WON. It was great. How good was it? We got to park here with our parking pass.

I know. You’re jealous. I don’t blame you. I don’t know how I’ll go back to trudging 2 miles (more or much, much less) through the student lots, dodging corn hole games, after parking a mere 75 yards from the stadium. Parking passes like this (and their corresponding sweet seats 30 rows back from the field) don’t come easy. The owners first started buying season passes in 1979.

Here is Amos, to cool for school, helping me blow out candles. (Ok not really cause that would be kinda gross, he just wanted to pose).

Action Shot!

Martha Stewart Cooking School recipe #1 completed for the month! Before the game mom and I made spaghetti from scratch! It was a lot of fun and not really that much work. Messy, absolutely. Hard, absolutely not.

Caden decided to make “art” on the back patio. Just thought I’d share.

Sunday I completely blanked out and forgot my camera, but I spent the afternoon in Winston-Salem with my cousin, Wendy, at her baby shower and the night at Grace’s house in Durham playing games and talking about all sorts of wedding fun with a great group of girls. I hope we get to do it again soon!

Did you know that today is my favorite holiday? Sure in Mexico they are celebrating the Day of the Dead, and that is pretty cool, but here at my house we are celebrating my birthday! By we, of course, I mean me, Amos and Caden. Patrick is back in California for two weeks, figures.

Since he knew he would be gone today, Patrick kicked off my birthday celebration Friday afternoon. I came home to flowers and the best card I have ever received. Later that night we went for burgers at Five Guys and Where the Wild Things Are. Good times.

Saturday we ran a bunch of errands and did the 1st Annual Loftin Family Last Minute Halloween Costume Scramble. I have been participating in this event for years as a single entrant but this is the first time Patrick and I went in together. Despite the fact that all we bought was duct tape, face paint and 2×4s, I think the costumes turned out pretty well.

The platform shoes really made the outfit!

Let’s see, we have Kat Von Dee, Gang Green, Ace & Paul of Kiss, a Zombie and a Boxer. The other half of Kiss backed out at the last minute. Lame!

Sunday morning Patrick and I were up early to take him to the airport (BOO!). Afterwards, I went to church and then met up with my friend Erica for an early birthday lunch at the Flying Biscuit. It was awesome, and she made sure I had cheesecake. Now that is a good friend!

Best costume I saw: Rob & Big (complete with a minihorse!)
The one I didn’t get at all: Reproductive tract of a mare (it was a vet school party, afterall)

What is the best thing you saw? How many balloon boys, octomoms and Michael Jacksons were at your party?

Yowzers, its already Wednesday? I have a million good excuses as to why the blog has been silent, but no one wants to hear them.

Here’s all you need to know about my weekend: Patrick is home, and I couldn’t be happier. Sadly, he is flying back to California on Sunday for another two week stint. I have been attempting to spend as much time as possible with him before he leaves again, he is lucky that I haven’t followed him into the bathroom, yet.

What a wonderful weekend! As I mentioned Friday, I spent the weekend with family on Miami Beach. My cousin was married in a beautiful ceremony at the Smith & Wollensky steak house on South Beach. We stayed at the Ritz Carleton. The weather was beautiful. It doesn’t get much better than that. (If only Patrick had been there, it would have been perfect!)

A frozen mojito a the Ritz bar. The perfect Miami cocktail and a great way to kick off the weekend.

My cousins, Sara and Ben.

Dante, the adorable ring bearer, during the ceremony.

Rain over downtown Miami, as seen from South Beach.

Congratulations Ben and Natalie!

I’m not sure that I’m feeling 100% yet but since I do have some work to do this week, I better get my butt of the couch and go in to work today.

This weekend was slam packed with stuff. That’s the best way I know how to put it. Friday afternoon Patrick came over and we did some shopping for things we need to finish up over the weekend.

Saturday I got to work on table seating arrangements and place cards. Patrick came over to help but some how this project still managed to take all day. Seriously. That is all I did on Saturday.

Sunday morning was church and then we ran errands. I drove to Patrick’s house and we loaded up our both our vehicles with his clothes, a dresser and tools (yes, there are now BOY CLOTHES in my closet). Back at my house, we brought everything inside and it was instantly a DISASTER AREA. My house doesn’t have that much built in storage so trying to find a place for everything was a little bit of a nightmare. It doesn’t help that the office, where a lot of these things will go, is so full of wedding presents that you can’t shut the door. While Patrick set up a shelving unit in the outside storage room and sorted through his things I tried to make the guest room livable (it was also overflowing with wedding presents, we are blessed, I know) since there will be a rotating door of guests staying there over the next week. Before bed I cleaned the house and then collapsed into bed.

I have always been a bit of a wuss, I think all this activity (I didn’t sit down, even to eat, from the time we got home from church until I got into bed at 11:30) combined with a general lack of sleep and a sore throat that did me in yesterday.

So over the last few weeks, Patrick has taken to proclaiming everything that he does as the last time, like when we were signing the friendship register in church, he says that it is the last time that he gets to put his name on it’s own row, the last time he starts a new rotation at school, the last time that he gets his hair cut.

Of course he means that it is the last time before he gets married, but he could just say that. It’s not like he will spontaneously combust on Saturday around 4:30. But anyway, with that in mind,
this is the LAST TIME I write a weekend in review (as a single lady).

This weekend was one of the most fun weekends. EVER. For real…when you walk into a house and you are greeted by this:

It’s going to be a fun night.

First up, we had a little girly time over at Spa Vouge. This place is swwwannnkkkyyy. Loved the chandeliers, zebra stair runner and mostly naked man poster in the bathroom. Wait, what?

After nail pampering, and mimosas, and cheesecake, it was back home for peach Bellini’s, lingerie and party games. P.S. Patrick I love you but I know nothing about you and have a monster wad of bubble gum to prove it.

Before long it was time to get all dolled up (don’t you just love that phrase? cause I do) and head out to dinner.

Danielle and I could totally pass for co-joined sisters here and tour as a freak side show act, but I digress.

Dinner was amazing (the Black Pelican always is!) and after yawning through dinner (you try drinking champagne all day), we perked back up when we hit the house. This time the girls were not going to let me leave the house with out the accessories I had snuck out without before.

I gave the veil some extra poofing through out the night to keep it Southern style.

We headed out to Kelly’s which is the place to be on the beach (I had no idea!) and got our boogie on. There were so many bachelor/ette parties going on that night, it felt like we were in Charleston. By the time the 4th group of “hey we’re here with a bachelor party, you should come over” guys came around, I was all “honey, that’s what they all say.”

3 things I wish I had pictures of: the longest mullet I have ever seen (and I live in North Carolina), the lead singer in the band who was a dead ringer for Vince Neil, and this energizer bunny of a dude who would not stop his ridiculous gyrating dance moves for a good half an hour. That may have been my fault, as I’m pretty sure it began when I said, “No, let me see you really break it down.”

Other highlights of the night were when the DJ came up beside me because he was trying to give me a shout out (sweet!) and I asked him if he was security, the quote, “Erica, I’m not saying you are one, just sometimes you have to be one” and seeing someone instantly stand up straighter when I told him who my dad was. Oh and cake!

Cake that did not get eaten that night, but isn’t it just the cutest thing?

Finally we made it home and to bed, only to get up 3 hours later for pictures on the beach. They turned out pretty nice though, huh?

Finally it was time to eat, and I was huuungry. The perfect antidote for no sleeping mixed with lots of drinking is a greasy spoon breakfast, which is exactly what we had. I also distributed my “look how anal retentive and obnoxious I am” 10 page wedding itinerary.

Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Erica and I putzed around the Grandy Farmer’s Market, visited with Grandma Faye, and I was back on the road to Raleigh.

Oh and can I get an “amen” for this sign:

So, the weekend.

I’ve been trying to wait to get pictures from Patrick before writing up this post, because how boring are weekend recaps with out pictures? Since it is now Thursday and becoming extremely apparent that somebody isn’t going to load their pictures anytime soon, I thought maybe I should at least write down what we did before I totally forget. Hey love, I’m giving you the stink eye from all the way across Raleigh. (Of course, you could say this is my fault for forgetting my camera yet again, but this is my blog, so you won’t.)

Friday night was uneventful and mainly consisted on cleaning the house.

Saturday morning I got up and packed my bags. Patrick came around 11 and we got on the road a little while later. We had a great drive down to Surfside Beach. Finally chose a song for our first dance. Once in Surfside we took the dogs for a long walk, enjoyed cooking out with the family, and eventually crashed, ready for the beach the next day.

After a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon Sunday morning it was time to head out on the beach. It takes a long time to load up 9 people, even if we are going less than a quarter mile. Finally on the beach, we claimed our spot and got ready to soak up some rays. Instead we got rain. Not too much, but I certainly wasn’t worried about getting burned. Oh well.

Monday was more of the same, it was so cold on the beach that I laid under my towel. I know I’m a wimp, but it was a little ridiculous. After showers Patrick and I headed up to the outlet mall in North Myrtle Beach to take advantage of the Labor Day sales. We loaded up on good stuff for the honeymoon. Back in the car, it was a late night getting into Raleigh.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing weekend with soon-to-be official family. This coming weekend (which starts um, tomorrow) is going to be fun, but in a whole different way. It’s my bachelorette party, and I have no idea what is in store, except that it’s at the Outer Banks and I need an 80s prom dress. Lot’s of pictures next time, I promise.

I have two words to explain why I am just now getting around to writing this up: Mario Kart. Ohhh, it’s fun.

Anyways…this weekend was fun as well. It started Friday afternoon with a menu tasting with mom at the Renaissance where we are having our wedding reception. We got to try 4 different salads, 4 entrees, and 4 desserts. And it was all delicious.

After a rainy drive to Hertford, we woke up the next morning and got dolled up to go to a bridal luncheon given for me and 2 other girls that are daughters of mom’s co-workers. Erica and Tiffany were able to make it, and we had a great time hanging out. Erica was reunited with her Betty Ford Clinic towel.

After the luncheon we stopped by a shower given for one of my cousins (he is getting married on the same day I am) and then headed to Elizabeth City for a makeup trial with Leslie. Back home, exhausted, we hung around the house for a lazy Saturday night.

Up early for church, once we got home we went to work fixing a huge lunch. Mustard fried trout, Cajun blackened red fish, hush puppies, potatoes and broccoli. All delicious. After a quick clean up I was on the road back to Raleigh.

Patrick met me at the house, and I was so glad to see him! He had been gone for 2 weeks and it was great to have him back home. After catching up a bit we went and bought Mario Kart for Wii. And that’s pretty much all I’ve done since.

So this weekend was so blissfully low-key that I won’t even bore you with the details except to say the following:

- Confessions of a Shopaholic was surprisingly hil-lar-i-ous.
- The dogs could not have been less interested in the dog park.
- A trip to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon is almost never a good idea.
- Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family has entertained me more than once.
- I had not one, but two DIY fails this weekend.
- The boys need their own beds in my room. It was cute the first time they slept on my sham pillows, but now they are starting to smell.
- Thought about going out Saturday night, but it was raining so instead I had a huge bowl of ice cream. It was the perfect call.

Ohh and how could I forget…the R.S.V.P. deadline has come and gone, and we still have 95 outstanding. Here’s the round up of those we have heard from:

Total Yes: 109
Total No: 46

Team Stallings Yes: 55
Team Stallings No: 27

Team Loftin Yes: 54
Team Loftin No: 19

Ohhhh so close! It’s getting juicy.