the 5th time's a charm

As I posted before, today I went wedding dress shopping for the 5TH time! Well it turns out the the 5th time is a charm because i totally found my dress today!!! I was a little hesitant because this bridal store didn't have very good reviews online, everyone said the ladies who worked there were rude, unhelpful the list goes on but they had the designer that I wanted to look at, and had found numerous dresses online that I loved so I decided to just go anyway. Well, they couldn't have been MORE sweet and MORE helpful so I don't know what those people were talking about! The lady who was helping me was so nice, asked me numerous questions about my wedding, theme, etc, and let me pull any dress I wanted to and she also pulled a couple she thought I might like. I ended up pulling every dress I had found online and loved to try on so I was SO excited to actually be able to try on exact dresses I had found because I had never been able to do that before. I pulled around 6 or 7 dresses and she pulled a few as well.

So, I try on all of the dresses the appointment has been about an hour and 15 minutes, my friend Theresa had to leave early so it was Rebecca and me and I said ok let me try on ONE last one that I had pulled. Well that was the ONE! She pulled it out of the bag and I was like Ooooh myyyyy gosh, glowing. And when I put it on it fit PERFECT and I just had a huge smile plastered across my face as well as goosebumps ALL over my body. I walked out of the room and my friend Rebecca's face LIT UP and she was like "OH MY GOSH CASEY!" which is exactly the reaction I was feeling and hoping she would have. It was just that MOMENT you dream about and you just KNOW that that is YOUR dress. I didn't want to take it off and I couldn't stop smiling. It is the most perfect dress for my wedding that I could have ever imagined...i couldn't have even designed it better. I never in a million years thought I would pick a dress like I picked, but I could NOT be more happy and excited about it. I am absolutely in LOVE with it and it is all I can think about! Some bridal places are strict about taking pictures, but she was helping us find the best light, making sure we got pictures of all the little details, because she also knew I needed to send these pictures to my mom who is 3, 000 miles away.

At first I felt a little guilty going and trying on dresses without my mom being there, and wishing all of my bridesmaids could be there when I found THE ONE, but now that I am actually thinking about it, it makes it a lot more special and exciting knowing that on my wedding day will be the first time any of them have seen me in my wedding dress in person. I of course sent them pictures we had taken on our phones, but those will be long forgotten by August of next year, and are NOTHING like seeing it in person. So, I am actually in a way glad that they weren't there because now we get to have this super special reveal moment, that's a little extra special than normal and I am grateful for that and it should make for such an amazing photo! :)

Now I just need to get a little more money in the wedding fund that we started so I can put 1/2 down to actually be able to order my dress....now that day is going to be even MORE exciting than today was,and today was ridiculously exciting! Hopefully I will be able to order my dress sometime in May, and it will take 6-8 months for my dress to come in so at the earliest it will be here in November and the latest January. I thought I wanted to buy my dress in California because I didn't want to travel with it,but it does make sense to order it here so I can have it fitted and altered by the bridal salon and actually HAVE my dress in hand...I will just give it it's own seat (which it fully deserves) on the drive back to California next June! :)

Welcoming May

April is almost over. This year continues to fly by and I am excited for May! Not only because its my birthday month, but also because black jack ball is next friday and it is the home stretch for Bobby to be done with his first year of grad school! I still don't have any official birthday plans, but that's ok I guess I plan on doing plenty of celebrating on friday at the ball. Having a birthday on a Wednesday is super lame, maybe Bobby and I will go to dinner or I have been tossing around the idea of doing a big group dinner somewhere the weekend after so we will see. I definitely don't want to have to plan my own birthday celebration so who knows what will happen lol

Today marks the one hundred day countdown to the one year mark! I SOOO can't wait to reach that bench mark it feels like such a long time coming, yet time has really gone by so fast so I hope these next 100 days fly by too! I feel like they will because we have a lot going on this summer, like my brother's wedding in Alaska (that I STILL need to buy my plane ticket for) and also visiting friends and family in California, in addition to whatever else....work boo! Speaking of wedding I found the most perfect shoes for the wedding and I couldn't help but buy them! They're the perfect color! I got them in the mail today and it made me really excited! I am going dress shopping tomorrow so I am going to bring them and wear them with the dresses I try on haha They are a lot taller than I thought they would be, and I don't plan on wearing them the whole night, I plan on changing into flats for the reception so it will be good to have them and be able to talk to the bridal salon/alterations people about ordering the right length for my dress to be able to take that into account.

Today, I also have a random, last minute afternoon off. Bobby left to NYC with his dad at 5am with my car, and my key to Kieran's dad's house was on those keys so his dad said he was already planning on taking off work early so he would just leave a little earlier and pick him up and spend time with him since he has been out of town...guess it works out for everyone because I haven't been feeling great today so I am just going to eat some soup and curl up on the couch and rest. I have been feeling kind of dizzy and light headed for some reason, so I will take full advantage of the "me" time and enjoy it. I am going to my friend Theresa's house later tonight for a Simon Partners meeting, we are starting a new year which means new officers for the club so the 4 of us are meeting to discuss future plans. :) This weekend is also another experience Simon weekend, which means another weekend of being wined and dined by Simon and taking the prospective partners around Rochester and showing them a good time! This is a definite perk of being an officer!

I am also going dress shopping again tomorrow and I can not wait! I had them pull two specific dresses, but I have also found more I want to try on that I hope they have! I am seriously so anxious to find my dress maybe I will tomorrow! :) We shall see!!!

Wine Tour

Saturday was the much anticipated wine tour! We met up with the group at our friend's Jon and Caitlin's house around 9:45am and waited for the party bus to arrive...which would be our ride for the entire day. SO fun! We left promptly around 10am and headed to the first winery, 3 Brothers Winery. The wineries were all about an hour from Rochester, so we had mimosas and bagels on our way to the first winery. We arrived at 3 Brothers around 11am and at this particular venue there are actually 3 wineries and one microbrewery and this was by far the most fun place of the day! We received a tasting passport when we arrived so we would be able to do our tastings at all 4 places on the property. I really like white wine and sweet wine which was what the majority of Upstate New York produces apparently so it was good for me! The main winery was probably my least favorite though, and then the last two wineries and the microbrewery were my favorite and were a lot more fun. All of the wines and the last two wineries were sexual innuendos and was pretty funny joking with the people pouring for us, they were all our age anyway so it was fun! I liked every single wine in the last two wineries and I even liked the beers we had, one tasted like coffee and chocolate which was interesting to say the least!

We ended up going to a total of 5 wineries because we made a spontaneous stop at an extra one on our way home. I feel like we could have gone to better wineries, we have a friend who grew up in the area and told us there are about 50 wineries on the opposite side of the lake that we were on, and that they are all better, but the fun was had by spending time with the people we were with so I didn't care so much and it is just good information to know for next time! I still really want to do the Wine Train in Napa so I hope we can do that SOON!

We got back to Rochester...after some intense dance partying and singing, mustaches included, around 6pm. We took our two friends Matt and Bill (who are roommates) back to their place and we all ordered and split some chinese food. We were literally all falling asleep on the couch so we ended up heading home around 8 and I was in bed and fast asleep by 9! haha I slept for a couple hours and woke up until about 1am then slept solidly till 9am. Wine makes me sleepy! LOL

Although it was cold and rainy the whole day, we made some amazing memories and got to spend all day with a great group of friends and even met some new people! :) I can't wait till our next wine tour!!

Now the countdown to the big Black Jack Ball is on! I ordered a dress from Nordstrom and it shipped today, I am praying it fits and looks good because I am beyond tired of looking for a dress! It should get here sometime this week, in enough time to find a different dress if it doesn't work thankfully, but lets just hope it works because it's exactly what I want! It's crunch time, we literally didn't have 30 minutes to workout in the last few days, so we will be hitting the gym hard tomorrow!!! 17 days until my 25th and 12 until the black jack ball! Where is the time going?!

The Group

The Mustache

Some of the ladies

Time Flies

Well that was a quick week! That's how long it has been since I last posted and I can't believe it's been that long time is seriously flying by...April is practically over already and it seems like it just started! My last post was about my 30 day challenge of working out every day for 30 days, well I have missed one day so far but I figured I needed a day off your body needs to rest and repair itself so that's ok. I have gone to the gym and done something for 9 out of the last 10 days! :) I am super exhausted today, I worked from 7:15-530 yesterday and 7:30-6 today, but I am hoping to still make it to the gym since I don't think I will be able to go on Saturday because we have an all day wine tour with a group of our friends which I have been looking forward to for a month now! Wine is definitely needed at the end of this week!

I got the urge this week to go wedding dress shopping again and I actually feel like I am READY to commit to a dress. I have already gone dress shopping 3 times, but really didn't feel like I was ready to commit to a dress because it still seemed like the wedding was so far off and I was scared to buy a dress and then have major dress regret later when new dresses come out, but now that we are about 90 ish days out from the one year mark I am starting to get  a sense of readiness to pick my dress, which is exciting and scary! I have (I think) changed my mind completely about what style/fit of dress I want, because of the dresses I have tried on already, taking into consideration that our wedding is in hot hot August and 100% outdoors comfort is going to be KEY. I want to have FUN at our wedding and I don't want to at any point be the least bit miserable from being uncomfortable so I am leaning towards a much more comfy style than I was thinking before. I want to be able to sit, dance, move to take pictures etc without being restricted in my dress. My personal style is very comfy/casual so why should that change on my wedding day...I am still going to pick an amazingly beautiful dress (of course) but I know I can find that AND be comfortable too. So, I made an appointment for next friday at another bridal salon in Rochester because they have two specific dresses at their salon that I found online and want to try on, so I am praying I love how they look on me and it just further solidifies my change of heart on the style of dress I want. If they don't....I may lose my mind because I swear I have tried on almost 30 dresses at this point LOL It's a little bit ridiculous and I am very ready to check DRESS off my list :)

Speaking of dresses, I still need to find a dress for the Black Jack Ball on May 4th that Simon is hosting. It is now almost 2 weeks away and I have no idea what I am going to wear! I was really wanting to wear a long evening gown, but I haven't found any I like enough to pay $300+ for so now I am thinking a nice cocktail dress like the one I wore to the GBF Gala will be fine and a lot easier on my bank account. Especially since we just had to shell out an unexpected $300 to fix a radiator hose and sensor in my car! GRR! Because my car has been at the dealership I have been playing taxi for Bobby, having to pack up Julia and come back to get Bobby and take him to school and pick him up after...another reason why I am exhausted I am SO sick of driving haha We should be getting my car back tomorrow so I am glad I will no longer have to play chauffeur.

It's almost the weekend! Can't wait for some WINE!!!! :)

30 Day Challenge

Monday marked the 30 day countdown until my 25th birthday! Da-na-naaa!!! So naturally I decided to challenge myself to workout every day for the next 30 days until my birthday and see how good of results I get! I am now on day 4 of working out so 26 more to go! It sure is a lot easier when I don't have to work every single day, so I know next week will be a lot more tough with going back to work 5 days a week, but I will do it! It's not even so much of I have to lose so much weight in 30 days, it's more of just feeling good about myself come my birthday and then I can celebrate on the big day! woo hoo! The Black Jack Ball is 5 days before my birthday so hopefully that doesn't interfere with anything, we have a lot of events this month, something practically every weekend! This weekend is an 80's party tomorrow night, GBC Happy Hour Saturday night, next weekend is a wine tour with a group of friends, and the NEXT weekend is another big Simon Partners weekend then the next weekend in the Black Jack Ball! Ay yi yi! I don't think I have ever had all of my weekends full for a whole month! Last weekend we were in NYC and the weekend before that was the GBC/GBF I am so looking forward to a lazy weekend at home! haha All of these things sure are making the weeks fly by though so I am definitely happy about that! We are down to 2 months left until Bobby is finished with his first year of business school, 3.5 months until my brothers big day, and less than 4 months until the one year mark for our wedding! I honestly can't believe how fast time is flying by but I couldn't be happier! :)  A lot of amazing things have happened this year and I know there are just more blessings and exciting things around the corner!

NYC

Last weekend was my first (long awaited) trip to New York City! From everything Bobby said about it, and how he wasn't a huge fan I was kind of expecting the worst, but I was still very excited to experience it myself. We drove in Thursday evening after Bobby was finished with his classes for the day, and after he packed (last minute of course) and arrived in Jersey City around 11:30pm. We stayed in Jersey City because the City is just too darn expensive...the average nightly hotel rate is around $300 dollars and that is just for an ok room. We stayed at the DoubleTree in a king jr suite for $189/night and that is still pretty expensive for us! It was a really nice hotel though and the area was awesome too. We were right by a mall, and within a 5 minute walk to the PATH station which takes us to NYC across the Hudson. We had an outstanding view of the Manhattan skyline. I would highly recommend staying in Jersey City it was affordable and in a great, safe location.

Friday afternoon Bobby and his dad (who we met...he flew in from Wyoming) had a lunch meeting with a friend who lives in Manhattan so we rode the subway into the city that morning/early afternoon. We were a little early so we took a walk down by Rockefellar Center and down 5th avenue...I would kill to be able to shop there...amazing. After spending 5 minutes in the city I completely understand how people always say that NYC is the one place that you can feel SO alone and still be surrounded by people...it's crazy people are just go, go, go! So after a quick walk around the area we met his friend at a Japanese restaurant for lunch. This was a legitimate Japanese restaurant meaning there were no forks or silverware...only chopsticks haha Well, I had never used chopsticks before because I had never been forced to so I was a little nervous because it was a business lunch and I didn't want to make a fool out of myself. Well Bobby joked around about it with me and the guys wife told him that I had never used chopsticks before and so he asked for a fork for me lol He goes to this restaurant all the time so they know him and it was of course no big deal...even if I was the only person in the whole restaurant using a fork...I gave the chopsticks a shot with the salad and did pretty good but I just used the fork for the meal because I kind of started to make a mess...oops!

After lunch we started exploring...we walked down 5th avenue again and ended up in Central Park which was beautiful! We got so lucky with perfect weather! It was a little windy, but there was not a cloud in sight and it was beautiful, sunny, and around 60 degrees perfect for walking around outside and still be comfortable. Both times Bobby had gone to NYC it was in the winter and absolutely FREEZING! When the wind blows in between some of the buildings it is literally like a wind tunnel and it just about blows you over. I couldn't imagine having to walk around outside everywhere in the winter I so would not survive! After Central Park we walked to ground zero where they opened the memorial fountain and are building the memorial towers which are now the tallest buildings in NYC. We didn't have advanced passes to see the fountain because we didn't know we would need them so we just walked around the area, it is pretty crazy being there and knowing what happened and imagining how that day must have been....it's unimaginable. From there we went to the financial district and to Wall Street. It is pretty cool seeing places you have seen on TV or in movies in real life! From there we were hungry again so we went to a place near by that they had gone last time they were there...a Scandinavian place. They had both been raving about these Swedish meatballs they got last time so I was excited to try them...boy were they GOOD! Bobby got a steak dinner and that was amazing too! The owner raises his own cattle and the meat is a true testament to how well he raises them...seriously amazing! For dessert I got a raspberry and nutella crepe....to.die.for. SO good I think I could have even every crepe on their menu which was close to 20 haha!

After dinner we decided to walk to Times Square...WOW. There was a Niki Minaj concert going on and there was an INSANE amount of people. You could barely even walk it was so crowded...not my thing. It was awesome to see Times Square though, where the ball drops, and to experience the immense amount of lights...it was pitch black at night and because there were so many lights it was literally like day time! We got back to the subway that night around 10pm

The next day, Saturday we wanted to go to the Discovery museum in Times Square because they had an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls which was pretty amazing to see. So we went to that which took a couple hours and after that we went back to 5th Ave and walked around, went into the 6 floor Tiffanys and the original Saks Fifth Avenue and pretty much day dreamed about how amazing it would be to be able to go shopping there...ok maybe that was just me lol By the time we were done doing all of that we were hungry and wanted to try a pizza place my friend Theresa had recommended called John's Pizza. The wait was about an hour but it was so worth it. It was classic New York style pizza and oh so good! After pizza we of course had to get dessert so we went to the famous Junior's for cheesecake! YUM! After dinner and dessert we were so disgustingly  full that we went back to the hotel. We were also SO exhausted from walking two days straight basically we couldn't wait to get into bed!

Sunday we went to breakfast at a diner called the Brownstone Diner & Pancake Eatery that come to find out was on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! They are known for their 30 different types of pancakes...holy cow that was the biggest menu I have ever seen everything I saw come out of the kitchen looked amazing. I decided to go with good ole chocolate chip pancakes and they were by FAR the best pancakes I have ever had. I couldn't come close to finishing them and I didn't eat again until after we drove ALL the way back home to Rochester (7 hours later) if that tells you anything lol

The trip was GREAT! There is still so much more I want to see and do there so a follow up trip is definitely in order! I definitely don't think I could EVER live there, but visiting is fun so I think I will stick with that! :)

Central Park

Manhattan Skyline

NY Stock Exchange

Empire State Building behind me

Times Square

one of the 9/11 Memorial Towers

Original Bloomies

Smorgas. Delicious dinner!

Introducing...

Harlow Adriana Epperson

Born: April 8, 2012 @ 12:42 pm

7lbs 8oz 19.5" long

Perfect as can be!

TOO precious

After a LONG labor of approximately 26 hours (give or take) the beautiful miss H made her big Easter debut. We have been calling her little bunny ever since we found out Laura was pregnant again so it was only fitting for her to arrive on Easter. :)

I literally had a dream about her being born last night and no joke she looks almost identical to how I pictured her in my dream. She looks just like her mama did when she was born. I so can't wait to snuggle her when I see her...which will hopefully be next month sometime...as soon as possible!

I am SO proud of my best friend! She has been put through so much loss this past year and Harlow is a gift from God. I know that her grandpa Rocco and big sister Lyla are so proud of Laura and so in love with Harlow and will be watching over them both. Her and Adam are going to be amazing parents and I am looking forward to watching Miss Harlow grow up!

I am awaiting more pictures of this little princess and I will be sure to put them up! :) Don't you just want to kiss those adorable cheeks!!! <333 I am so in love already and I haven't even held her yet!