Mid-West Wedding

The weekend of April 16th, Charlie and I had been looking forward to heading to Indianapolis for one of my college girl-friend's wedding.  Since we moved to the East Coast, it has been hard to see all of our friends from college so it was going to be quite a reunion.  However, our dog came down with a really bad stomach bug that led us to a trip to the animal hospital in the middle of the night less than 24 hours before our flight to Indianapolis.   Griffey was quite sick and was de-hydrated from not being able to keep any food or water down, so the animal hospital thought it was best for him to stay over night in the hospital to get IV fluids and medicine down to get this stomach bug under control.  We didn't get back from the hospital till less than 2 hours before our flight was suppose to leave and had only about hour of sleep, so we were forced to call the airlines and try to get our flight rescheduled for later.  Luckily, for a stupid $50 change fee, we were able to get Katie's flight changed to Saturday morning and we decided it would be best for Charlie to stay behind and wait for Griffey to get released from the hospital.   Charlie was disappointed that he didn't get to come to our friend's wedding, but we were both very worried about our dog.

Katie made it to Indianapolis Saturday morning and scheduled an impromtu hair appointment with one of her close friends that was also there for the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful at an old building in Downtown Indianaopolis and all of our college friends were so happy to see the bride and groom so happy.   We danced the night away and when the bride realized that the band/dj did not have one very important song, we were thankful for the abundance of I-phones that made it easy to quickly downloand the Golden Girls Theme Song (wedding crisis adverted)....our favorite song from college that we use to sing in college walking to the bars and now continue on the tradition and sing it whenever we all get together again.

The wedding was a lot of fun and it was wonderful seeing so many of my college friends again.  Charlie went to the hospital to visit Griffey and took some pictures and sent them to me on my phone so that I could see how the 2 of them were doing.  Griffey was still alittle weak and getting over the stomach bug, so they kept him another night and Charlie picked him up on Sunday morning.  And when Charlie picked me up from the airport, there was a very happy dog waiting to see me.

Junior League Weekend - April 2nd

On Saturday April 2nd, I had my first Junior League event.  I joined the Junior League of Bergen County a few months after we moved here so that I could meet some more people and get involved with something outside of work.  For those of you that may not be familiar, the Junior League is a national volunteer organization for women.  It is similar to a sorority in terms of the first year you join, you are considered a "provisional" member (aka pledge) and work on a project with your provisional class members.   The Junior League of Bergen County is relatively small, my provisional class has 9 members whereas some leagues across the country have around 50 new members.  It was nice to have a small class though because we all got to know each other quite well.  The provisional class project is called "Kids in the Kitchen" which is a national event for all Junior Leagues to promote healthy eating and lifestyles to kids.  We were given guidance by the League but we have the opportunity to make the event whatever we choose.  My self and one other provisional member were elected co-chairs of the event.  This was quite a daunting task for myself because it was the first time I had ever chaired an event and it was difficult to devote a lot of time due to all the late nights at my financial reporting job; however we pulled it off and it was quite rewarding.

For the event, we planned a hands-on food demonstration by a celebrity chef, Angie Shaghaghi, at the Ridgewood, New Jersey YMCA.  We partnered with the Ridgewood YMCA and held the Kids in the Kitchen event on the YMCA's Healthy Kids Day.  Angie specializes in educating children about healthy foods and has a very entertaining way to teach kids how to make heathly choices.  

On the day of the event, my provisional class members and I met at one of our advisor's houses to stuff 100 goodie bags with fruit and water bottles and jump ropes and healthy snacks, all of which we had received donations from local businesses.  Once we arrived at the YMCA, we had 2 sessions of the food demonstration with Angie Shaghaghi and both sessions were packed full with kids eager to learn how to make an easy veggie roll-up wrap.  Angie truly lived up to her resume and everyone really enjoyed her.  

All in all, it was a great experience and I have met some great women from Junior League.  

Katie