Cruel and Unusual Punishment

I'm pretty sure I'm like, the best aunt ever. 

Well, I'm trying to be.

My biggest goal as an aunt is to influence that girl as much as I possibly can. I'm succeeding. 

(I just high-fived myself.)

Because of this, today I experienced something awful. 

A heart-breaking, painful experience.

I had to drop Madisyn off at her new day care.

"Can you take her? We are afraid she'll be too sad if I take her," said Mimi. "I can't do it because of my new work schedule," said her mother/my twin sister, Jessica. "We hate you and want to punish you for being amazing," they both thought in their minds behind my back.

Cowards.

I took her all right, and I got her all excited. I did her hair (duh), we practiced dancing and singing (she's like, really gifted) and introducing ourselves. (I also told her what to say when someone said they didn't want to play with her. You're welcome, Jess. I hope you're the one that gets yelled at for it! I'm half kidding.)

She was magnificent. She's brilliant. Sure, she didn't want me to leave, but thanks to a brilliant teacher, Madisyn met two new gal pals. 

What they didn't tell me is that I would be the one to cry. 

To look back. 

To keep peeking around the corner to see if she really left. 

My heart is broken. 

Thanks a lot, mom and Jessica. 

I owe you big time. 

Madisyn is so amazing and I can't wait for her to be "discovered". Need proof? 

Aunt Kell Kell & Maddie "First day of Daycare Selfie"

Getting ready to go to Daycare!

First day of school picture!

The place is called Jump, so.......

This is before we built the giant racetrack.

Her new friends!

How I found "The One"

I just knew it. The moment I looked over, I saw a light shining down on my perfect choice. I laughed a little, blushed, rushed right over and took what was mine.

And I've never been happier. I can't wait to wear it!

Oh, you thought I was talking about Kevin? Well this is awkward....

I said "Yes" to the dress! Yep, this girl has found her a dress! 

After a David's Bridal trip that left me feeling a little "eh", we decided to make a spontaneous trip to a few wedding dress consignment shops in Sarasota. If you are dress hunting, I highly recommend trying consignment first. I was really concerned that the dresses would all be 80's style, big poofy sleeves, crazy accents, big bows on my rear.... and there were a lot of those. Don't get me wrong.

However, there are quite a few dresses that are from this century, and many of them are exactly what you'd see in a store. The only catch is they have usually been worn, or if you're lucky, the original owner never got married!

Kidding, that's actually really sad..... How dare you.

Anyways, my dress looks like it should cost about $2000-$3000, and I plan on looking up the retail cost if I can find it! (Not that it matters, I'm just a little curious!)

This dress has everything I was looking for but couldn't find. Isn't that funny how it works out?

Speaking of working out...... that's what I should be doing right now! I have a dress to wear! 

;)

Stay tuned for more adventures in wedding planning//job drama//being engaged to Kevin!

{{thanks for reading}}

How to Fail at Cooking

I wish I could say that this post was full of great recipe ideas, or pictures of food I made/managed not to burn, or even tales of success from attempted Pinterest dishes. 

My Pinterest food board, titled, "Recipes I Could Actually Make!", hasn't actually seen the inside of my parents' kitchen.

Don't judge me.

At first, the fact that I can't/am too lazy to cook really bothered me. I can make a mean pot of spaghetti, I can brown ground beef like you've never seen, and I can make this amazing taco salad.

However, if you're trying to throw in fancy words and phrases like, "Steam", "Tablespoon", "Simmer", "Measure",  "Broil", "Oven", Timer", "Don't eat the raw dough".... I'm kind of lost after that.

I decided the other night that I was going to cook for my man! That's right. Cook. I quickly snapped a screen shot of a delicious (easy) looking recipe... crayoned a quick shopping list of ingredients on my nearest empty envelope (there was no paper/adult writing utensils anywhere near me, and I had thrown away my old receipts/note holders, as I like to call them), and the excitement set in. That's right, this Martha Stewart-in-training was going to make a very complicated meal of BBQ Chicken Pizza things for her fiancé. (Chicken, cheese barbecue sauce, pita things... advanced level stuff.) If he ever doubted that I was ready for marriage.... I was about to squash all of those fears.

Then.... I felt it. The anxiety. Do I have to use the oven? How much will this cost? Is it too late to cook? Is there a curfew on this kind of thing? Wow, didn't realize it was already 7pm.... 

My knight in shining armor comes over and I tell him, "I'm going to cook for you. Let's stop by Publix on our way in." 

Kevin leans in and whispers the magic words, "It's late, I'm starving, and we're broke. Let's get McDonalds."

I can't wait to marry this man.