Happy Mother's Day!

Ok, so I'm a few days late, but we wanted to honor some important people.  So, in the wedding style, on the left is Josh's mom on her wedding and on the right is Megan's mom.  We wouldn't be anywhere without the two of you.  Can't wait to share our big day (and the rest of our lives) with both of you. 

 

I also want to take this moment to mention two wonderful moms celebrating their first Mother's day as moms!  My sister-in-law Lynne and my adorable nephew Mark who was born in September.  On the right is my cousin Sara with her beautiful daughter Elaina.  You will be hearing more about these wonderful women later on.  Mark and Elaina are so lucky to have such wonderful parents!

A Shower!? But I already took one this month!

So, I was under the impression that Josh couldn't lie to me.  He has been known to give away presents at Christmas time on more than one occasion.  I was wrong.  This past weekend I was told that I was celebrating Mother's Day with Josh's mom.  I was told that she was going to be out of town this weekend, so we were going to brunch at Bombay Louie's a week early.  I was even told that I could wear jeans.  Thank goodness I didn't.

When Josh and I got to Bombay Louie's on Sunday afternoon, I found out that Mamma Jankiewicz was really planning a surprise shower for me!  We had a great afternoon eating a wonderful brunch, getting to know all of my new family.  It was so great to take a day to relax and enjoy the company of some wonderful women!  We also got some very wonderful gifts from our very generous friends and family.  Josh's favorite is probably the Dyson vaccuum.  Josh loves gadgets and toys and I love the fact that he will now have a toy that will keep our home clean!  Thanks to all our friends and family for the wonderful gifts and spending the day with us!

Get the party started!!

So, once Josh and Megan have official become husband and wife, the party can officially start! Cocktails will start at 5:30 and the happy couple will be arriving sortly after that to get the festivities underway! Then, there will be much dancing, laughing (only with people, of course!), and making merry!

The festivities will all be taking place at Medinah Banquets in Addison, IL.

Some things that you will notice about the hall:

- It is beautiful and has enough space to dance the night away

- It is owned by the Shriners and therefore contains some Shriners memorabilia in the common areas.

So, you might be wondering, what exactly is a Shriner? You might be thinking, sure, I have seen the Shriners riding around in their little cars and flying carpets in my local parade, but what exactly do they do? Well, Megan found herself thinking the same thing.

Here are some things that she has found out.

-Shriners wear funny hats (called a fez), like this guy -------->

- They really do ride the funny cars in the parades
<------ like these guys

- The Shriners are a great organization that helps thousands of children. The organization runs 22 hospitals around the world. They began treating children with orthopedic problems, but have expanded since then.

- When a child is admitted to a Shriners hospital, the family is not expected to pay anything for the medical care and one way that they earn money for these hospitals is by running banquet halls.

- While Megan and Josh don't know any Shriners personally, here are some Shriners that everyone might know.

Buzz Aldrin, star of Dancing with the stars! (Oh and he did something else pretty significant, too)

Douglas MacArthur, military leader during World War II and the namesake of Megan's elementary school

Here is the church...

At this point you might be thinking to yourself, Megan has told us a lot of random things, but nothing really that important. Well folks, that is all about to change!!



Josh and Megan will be getting married at St. Hubert catholic church in Hoffman Estates, IL.





This is the church that Megan's family has gone to since they moved to the house that Megan grew up in. She made her first communion, reconciliation, and confirmation at St. Hubert and has a ton of good memories being involved with Youth Group during high school.

While the church as changed a lot since Megan was a girl, the new church is beautiful and Josh and Megan are very excited to complete the most important part of the day at St. Hubert!

The food

So, after two delays, we finally tasted the food that we will be serving on the big day.

Megan's main focus was on potatoes and veggies. She used to choose to go to Old Country Buffet when she was a kid just so that she could have a plate of potatoes and now it was a wedding task to be checked off!?! It was great!! Luckily for you, the other participants had a slightly wider focus, so there will also be meat on your plates...

The chicken choice will be (drum roll) Herbed Lemon Chicken. Josh couldn't stop talking about this one!

The beef choice will be... Roast Sirloin! This Megan really enjoyed, very tender and tasted fantastic!

There will also be a steamed vegetable, pasta, marinara sauce combination for all of those who prefer not to have meat!

So, now you can all eat, drink, and watch us be married!

Now a few thoughts on ice cream...

You may be wondering why Megan would choose to write about ice cream in February, or why as a grown up, she would write about ice cream at all. Well, first of all, it is not just ice cream, but Dairy Queen ice cream. Megan's parents taught her to love it. She in turn passed that love on to Josh. On thier second date they went to DQ to try the new Kit-Kat blizzards (which neither of us really liked). Since then there have probably been hundreds of trips to DQ. Josh will be Megan's family, after all, and he needs to know all about the greatness of (and Megan's slight obsession with) DQ.

Why then, is Megan writing about it in February? Because a few days ago the best Dairy Queen in Kenosha (22nd Ave. try it if you don't believe!) opened for the 2010 season. Josh introduced Megan to it shortly after they started dating. Since then, Megan and Josh would generally be there on day one, getting a small cup of chocolate ice cream or perhaps an oreo blizzard, but Megan is still longing for her first taste of the season. Why might she be making this sacrific? For Josh, of course. They will be getting ice cream on Saturday, when their schedules finally intersect for the week. While the wait has Megan missing the choclate ice cream, she knows sharing even the little things with my best friend always makes them sweeter!