1 week! Seven Days!! Seriously?!

ONE week until my WEDDING. I can't say that enough. MY WEDDING. Since February 25th, 2009..and pretty much my life up to that point, I've been waiting for this day! WHY is it, that it's not hitting me?? It's crazy! I feel like its going to pass me by so fast, In fact I KNOW it will, but for some reason the fact that I'm going home literally this week and getting married and going on my honeymoon seems surreal. PINCH ME! I don't know what to say except that I'm ready...and not ready...and ready..and not ready! Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited to marry Lee and very happy! I'm ready to be married and buy our first home together and have babies and live happily ever after. I just want it all to slow down so I can savor the moment! AHHHHHH! That is all. I'm going to go pack for my HONEYMOON... <-- (i know right??)

Showered with Love

Several weeks ago, my aunt Jan, thew me a wedding shower! I had so much fun. The shower was at the Fincastle Library in downtown Fincastle..a block from where we're getting hitched! The food was fabulous wonderful, the games were fun, and my car was overflowing with goodies. Most of my friends and family made it to the shower and it meant so much to me to have everyone there. I haven't posted because I'm still waiting for pictures from my cousin-in law, Ashley. The best part was coming home and watching Lee's eyes get bigger and bigger as he unloaded stuff from the car. Like a kid at Christmas! Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated. MUCHO GRACIAS <--I'm brushing up on my spanish for our trip in January! (had to throw that in there) Here are a few pictures from the shower :)

pass me a sweater, please!

With only a week till the wedding, it just hit me that Fall (my favorite season) is right around the corner. Goodbye tank tops, flip flops, sweat dripping off my forehead..I'm ready for hoodies and sweaters and pumpkins and soup and chili and everything that goes along with being cozy. Autumn officially starts on September 23rd. Thats only 7 days after we get back from our honeymoon! That means, when I get back from sweltering sunny Florida, I'm going into fall mode. Last year was unfortunate. In October of last year was when I started getting sick. It made the holidays really difficult to celebrate, as I could hardly leave the house on the weekends. I made this little list last year with all my Fall to do's :) I think I accomplished one thing on that list...clap it up for fibromyalgia. This year, I'm feeling LOTS better so I decided to once again, revisit the list. You know you're more excited than Paula Deen is about two sticks of butter..

A list of my anticipated Fall Follies!

1. Visit an apple orchard

2. Go on a hayride

3. Make a homemade apple pie..and Eat it!

4. Carve a pumpkin (ok and maybe spray paint one or two as well)

5. Make something outta leaves

6. ....Pumpkin Pie..MMM enough said.

7. Drink apple cider

8. Go on a nature hike..or two or three.

9. Collect acorns

10. Throw the football-catch the football.

11. Roast smores over a bonfire

12. Go camping

13. Visit a haunted house

14. Make our own Halloween Costumes..can't wait!

I decided not to change up the list..AT ALL. I really feel like I missed out last year and I'm going to attempt to check most of these off. Quit whining and put your big girl sunglasses on..Summer isn't over yet! I'm heading to the beach right now as a matter of fact...

Boating Bachelorettes!

This past weekend I headed to Roanoke for a fun-filled bachelorette party. Being that I do try to maintain some individuality if at all possible, I decided to do something a little different. I'm so over Penis straws, Peter Pasta, Ring-around-the penis and a pocket full of condoms. I don't suck for a buck. I don't do double shots, regular shots, upside down shots, nor do I scavenge for men who will let me do whatever I want to them so long as I scratch number 27 off my list. I don't do t-shirts/tiaras/sashes..etc. It just isn't me! I'm pretty much anti-bachelorette parties..been there done that. I decided a long time ago that I'd love to spend a chill day with the girls doing an all day wine tasting or even a good old fashioned slumber party! Then I got the idea to spend a day on beautiful Smith Mountain Lake and rent a boat and relax and bask in the sunshine! I was worried leading up to the event that it would rain and storm. I did not have a back up plan. It was this or nothing. Thank you, LORD for beautiful weather. Mid-eighties, sunny, and partly cloudy! It was perfect! My beautiful bachelorettes consisted of a list of lovies that mean the world to me. Hope, my bestie and MOH. Andie, my sweet (AND FAVORITE FEMALE COUSIN), My BFF since preschool, Keri, One of the greatest, funniest, sweetest ladies in the whole world, Suzanne, and last but not least my two new soon to be sisters, Katy and Allison! Julie P and Brittany couldn't make it and I missed them so much! Lee's mom J$, was supposed to be our Captain but had a family emergency and had to travel to Minnesota. We tried to find a replacement boat driver..but surpassed all plan B's and plan C's and had to go with Plan L. My husband to be, Lee. I know, I know, how lame to have your future hubs at your bachelorette bash..believe me, I myself was pretty anti. I whined and whined to Lee about how Lame it would be. He assured me that he would not steal the show and would make sure we all had a good time! Well...he AMAZED ME! He was the best Skipper Ever. We had so much fun with him and he did a great job. Plus, you could tell he loved driving a boat full of beautiful girls around. It made him feel man-ish. I know it had to be tempting to see 6 coolers filled to the brim with beer and not be a tad jealous but he quietly drank his diet cherry dr pepper with a smile on his face and not one complaint! We cruised..we boozed..we shmoozed..we tubed.. played, swam, and laughed! Hope had some great games for us! My favorite was the question game! Hope came up with a list of 20 questions about Lee and my relationship and things about Lee. She called him the week prior to get his answers. I had to try to get all the same answers as he did. If I got the answer right, I had to drink a healthy helping of miller lite. If I was wrong I had to stuff my face with a wod of bubble gum. I did pretty good, only managing to chew four pieces of gum. I think Lee was a little scared at how well I did. We played another game called "reclaim your cherry" Everyone had a bowl of whip cream and without using their hands, had to find the cherry in their bowl. So cute! At the end, the girls all wrote down some wedding/marriage advice for me and Lee to share throughout our marriage! Hope did I great job! I was so impressed. Being, that she had never been on a boat in her life, been to a bachelorette party, and can't swim..I'd say she out-did herself! She even went tubing! We spent most of the morning in a private cove, swimming and enjoying the scenery. We went to Portside, docked and ate lunch and then headed back out for some more tubing before heading home. 8 hours flew by!! I'll never forget it! I wish it would've lasted longer, but as all of these moments pass my by, I know I'm one step closer to marrying the man I love. The wedding is less than two weeks!! WOW! Here are some fun photos of the event! :)

Date Night

Thursday nights in the Hammarback household are dates nights for us. First of all we both get paid on alternating Thursdays, so that works out in our favor...AND neither of us really care for the crowds on the weekends at the restaurants/beach/movie theatres etc..although we do put up with them on occasion. For the last two months we put date night into place and its starting to be my favorite day of the week. We surprise each other. I pick the date one week, and Lee will pick the date the next week. I have a huge lists of fun dates to do with him and I can't wait. We know that sometimes Thursday date night will not work out, for instance tonite I am getting ready to pack for our trip to Roanoke tomorrow (I feel like I'm there more than I am here) and I also promised to hang out with Julie tonite. Our church softball team starts tonite and Lee and I both want to play so that may also be a factor. Anyways...I wanted to brag about our fun little date night last weekend. It was a "double date" night if you will. I suprised Lee with tickets to see the Zac Brown Band at the VB AMP!



Bonus: We had another couple to go with, Caron and Tyler. Tyler and I have been friends since pre-school and I met Caron in high school! Caron lives in Richmond and Tyler lives in Williamsburg. Last year over the holidays we were supposed to go to Christmastown at Busch Gardens with them, but last year I was so sick, we never made it. (We'll tackle that again this year) With them living so close we've decided to meet as often as possible in Williamsburg. Unfortunately Tyler and Caron are celebrities and are booked up pretty much every weekend...you practically have to buy tickets to get dibsies. However, we got dibs on September 5th :)



We had a great time with them. ZBB was awesome...Live music, a couple of beers (COLD BEER ON A THURSDAY NIIIGHT) <-- see what I did there? ha! Sittin' on a blanket..under the stars..during a meteor shower no less! Perfect date night!






I look forward to hanging out again soon! Date nights are the best. :)

DC in 24

Last weekend, we were invited to spend the weekend in Washington, DC with our good friends, Hope and Bobby. When I say weekend, I mean 24 hours. We drove up early Saturday morning, spent the whole day there, and came home Sunday afternoon. We had so much fun! I guess it was kind of a last minute get-away for Lee and I and Hope paid for the room as a gift! That girl gets the best gifts! For my wedding shower she gave me a massage!! (the wedding shower post is coming soon..I have to get the rest of the pictures from my cousin in-law, Ashley)We stayed at the Fairfax on embassy row.



It had all the ambiance of DC. It was in the area of Dupont..and was one street over from where my mom used to live back in her younger days! She shared an apartment with girlfriends and worked for the FBI! How cool is that? We stayed next to the Embassy of Indonesia which I thought was totally gorgeous so I snapped this shot..I wondered though, why couldn't this international embassy afford central air?



I have been to DC a few times, but the last time I was there, I was 12. SO, I was very excited to go back and see all the sites. One of my number one goals was to go to the National Zoo. I went once when I was really little, maybe 5 or 6. We took the metro



from Dupont to Shady Grove and had lunch at a great little outdoor cafe. The food was amazing..I don't think we had a bad meal the entire trip. We walked several blocks up to the zoo. It was really hot that day so we immediatly ducked into the gift shop for some maps and air conditioning to recover a bit. We managed to find our way through the whole zoo...it was so much fun! I'm so glad we got to see the Panda, as I remember that from when I was a little girl, and I loved seeing the baby gorilla! I love animals.






I'm very impressed with the zoo for it to be free to the public. We saw Lions and Tigers and Sloth bears, oh my! After the zoo, we walked back towards the metro and stopped by a little Irish pub to wind down our day with a couple of beers. We headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We headed out again in Dupont



and found a fabulous Italian restaurant (Hope wanted Italian..great idea!) I can't even explain how fabulous the food was..so I wont! But, here is a picture of the four of us after our bellies were completely satisfied!



After dinner, we made our way back to the metro to head down to the Smithsonian and National Mall. My ONLY regret is that we would've seen the monuments during the day so that I could get better pictures! They were lit up really well for me to see..but with the camera, not so much. Hope and I plan to go back in the fall when it's not so hot and spend the day there and do some shopping :) Maybe then, I'll get some better pictures. We started at the Washington Monument,







made our way to the WW2 memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial.







Lee had never been to the Lincoln memorial so that was a priority. Don't you love how Hope chopped off Lincoln's head in that picture? At this point my feet felt like they were going to fall off! We never made it to the Jefferson memorial but we'd all been there before. By this point it was mid-nite so we caught a cab and asked him to drive us over to the white House for a quick photo shoot. He drove us as close as he could, but all the roads were blocked for an event. We saw it from a distance, but it wasn't close enough to take a pic in the dark so we didn't manage to catch that one. Lee was excited to see it even a little, because he has never seen the white house! We made it back to the hotel around 1am..way past my bedtime, and it was lights out. The next day we walked a few blocks and had brunch at Scion. It was YUUUUUMMMMY. We went back to the Fairfax and packed our stuff and the valet brought our car around 24 hours to the MINUTE we arrived. Hence the reason this post is entitled DC in 24. We had a great time with our best buds and can't wait to hang out again! I guess I'll be seeing Hope next weekend at my bachelorette party! :) I love you, best friend :)