Vacation 'til 2010

OK, so I wish I was really on vacation instead of working into the new year. Since I can't at work, I am instead taking a short break from blogging until the new year. After watching Julie and Julia, I realized that my blog needs a lot of work. I have been dying to change up not only the appearance but the content of the posts to make it more relevant to not only my FAB followers but to myself.

I am hoping that in my down time I can figure things out a bit. Thanks for continuing to follow me. I hope my return will not let you down.

Have a HAPPY NEW year everyone! Make the best of 2010!

Need a new cookie recipe?

Need a cookie recipe for a cookie exchange? or a holiday party? or just to snack on while you sip on some hot cocoa? Well, I may have the recipe for you!

Check out my latest post on my Roddy Bride Kitchen blog! I have made these cookies two years in a row and they are FAB!

Click here for the recipe for White Chocolate Cherry Chunkies (recipe courtesy of Paula Dean and FoodNetwork.com).

Happy Birthday To Me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME :)

On this day 28 years ago I was blessed with life. Keep the blessings coming!!

Have a FANTABULOUS day everyone!!

Vendor Review: The Photography

Vendor:
Haven Hill Photography
Lisa Palochik
http://www.havenhillphotography.com/

Grade: B+

If I was solely grading a vendor by their personality and willingness to help, I would have given this vendor an A+++. Lisa (the owner) was exactly what we were looking for in a photographer. She was very bubbly and personable (A+) and on the day of the wedding she helped us out a lot. She was like our caretaker (A+). She coordinated with the DJ when certain parts of the event were to take place and always kept us aware of what's next. This was greatly appreciated. Her packages were also very much appreciated as they were very affordable for us and exactly what we were looking for (A+).

My biggest gripe for this vendor is the lack of communication. If I sent an email or made a phone call it would take at least 5 days before I heard back from her. This, I was not happy with. I will be ok with up to 3 days but taking a week or more to respond is rough for me. I don't even care if it was a short email stating, "Hi, I know you exist. Bye". This happened before and after the wedding. It was pretty much a month or so (maybe close to 2) before I heard anything from the photographer about the pics. It was a little frustrating and it didn't help that when I told my baker she said she had heard about this from other brides. (sigh)

Also, I do love the pictures but I wish we would have come up with better poses to make for some more interesting pictures. I guess I failed at that but I assume a pro photgrapher would have many ideas on how people should be posed and have creative ideas with the many years of experience. BUT maybe that is me expecting too much. I am new at this.

Either way, I was happy to work with her and her hubby in making our magical day, perfect!

My Lil' Family

Introducing our little family. The Roddys.

Photo by Haven Hill Photography

Baby Roddy @ 11 wks 6 days

Sorry for the cell phone quality pic.

Just a few more days...

Until my 28th birthday and the 1yr anniversary of our engagement :)

Oh and a few extra days until Christmas!!

Roddy Wedding: Getting Ready

I finally have my pictures in hand, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite ones of us getting ready. It all took place at my parent's house. I was getting ready in my parent's bedroom while the hubs was floating around the house making sure his dad and his brother were ready.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question for the UGG Lovas

More than ever I have been interested in getting my first pair of UGG boots. My hubby HATES these boots but I really want them for the winter and since he promised to get them for me when I was preggie, I will get them soon (maybe birthday, maybe Christmas). Since I have been preggie I have very litte interest in heels right now. I am looking for comfort and warmth. I know my feet will swell as the baby grows so I need to know my little piggies are warm.

So this brings me to my question for my fellow UGG lovas or owners... Are UGG boots true to size?

Thanks in advance!

Pro Pics Coming Soon...

Yes, you heard (er...read) that right! I received the DVD of my pro photos last week so in the very near future I will be posting our favorites.

Stay Tuned!

Thankful...

In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share a few things that I am truly thankful for.

• My family (which includes the hubs, his family and our poochie) because our love is stronger than any materialistic object.
• Our health because without it we wouldn't be here to watch as we create new memories.
• The blessings we have received in the past and continue to receive. Without God we wouldn't be here right now basking in his blessings.
• Of course our new addition to the family, Baby Roddy. :)

The list can go on and on but those were a few of the most important things to me...


So what are you having for Thanksgiving?

The hubs and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house again this year.

Our tentative menu is as follows:

• Brined Turkey & gravy
• Spanish Red Rice & Beans
• Potato Salad
• Mac & Cheese
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Stuffing
• Yams
• Cranberry Sauce
• Crescent Rolls & Biscuits
• Desserts - Apple Crisp

Oh gosh, looking at this menu is making me super hungry!! Can't wait to dig in :)

Baby Roddy

Baby Roddy is now officially due June 25, 2010.

{personal picture}

Our little peanut is 8 weeks and 5 days big and oh what a blessing. My OCD kicked in so I desperately needed visual confirmation since I won't be feeling baby until about the 20th week - a long time from now.

Thank you all for your kind wishes and prayers! We have a long way ahead of us but we are so excited for it all.

The Pictures Are Here!!

My pro pictures are now available for online viewing! Yay!! I feel like it has been forever so I was getting a little bit nervous.

Once I get the DVD of the photos, I will post a few of my favorites here on my blog.

If you are interested in viewing the photos you can see them by clicking HERE*.

*Please note that in order to view the photos you have to "sign" the guestbook.

Happy Monday Everyone!!

You Really Like Me...A Super Cute Bloggie Award!

THANK YOU Stephanie from "I Do" At The Zoo for giving me this award! I also think your blog is super cute too! I LOVE your poochies too :)

This award is a Portugese originated award called Your Blog is Super Cute. This award only requires 1 thing, to be passed on to 5 others. So my FABULOUS bloggers, I think your blog is super cute too (I'm sure you already know)...

1. Callie @ August15Bride
2. Julie @ The DJ & The Bride
3. Heather @ Live.Love.Laugh.
4. Joy @ Wedding Planning with Joy
5. Amanda @ Life Love and Disney

Friday The 13th...

First off, I want to say THANK YOU to all for all your prayers, love and support. This pregnancy was a bit of a shock but we are VERY excited for what the future holds for our new and growing family. As I roll through this pregnancy I will be sure to update you all on the progress. So thanks again!! The mister and I truly appreciate you all!

OK, now let's get down to the Friday The 13th business.

I probably have never mentioned that I am a HUGE movie lover, especially horror movies. There aren't that many "great" horror movies out there but I have found many to be quite interesting or funny enough to laugh at. Even so, I still love them. I even love the books. I have nearly all of Stephen King's books. I find his imagination to be so vivid and I can read that in his books. I also love that he uses real life stories and morphs them into the stories he has created.

In honor of Friday The 13th, I wanted to share a few of my favorite horror flicks and books...

Books:

Rose Madder by Stephen King

Movies:

The Exorcist

The Shining

Friday The 13th series

Nightmare on Elm Street series

Halloween

Are you a fan of the horror genre? If so, what are some of your fav books or movies? If you are not a fan, name a few movies that scared the crap out of you...

Since the Cat is Out of the Bag...

I have a little surprise for all my fabulous readers...The Baby Fever was very real!

Mister Roddy and I are PREGGIE!!!

6 weeks and 2 days today.

We are so very excited about the idea of a Baby Roddy and are looking forward to becoming first time parents. Since it is very early, please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers to make sure we make it out OK.

Much love,

The Roddy Bride Recipes

That's right, I created a new blog. Don't worry, the Roddy Bride blog is definitely not going away. The new blog, The Roddy Bride Recipes, is a great new addition.

What is The Roddy Bride Recipes blog?

The mister and I are pretty much self taught cooks. We both love to cook together but I LOVE to bake too.  Because of our mutual interest in food, I decided to create a blog with some of our favorite recipes that we have tried and liked from family members, friends, cookbooks, magazines or the internet. We are even looking for some of my fabulous followers to submit some of their favorite recipes for us to try. Just think of this as an online recipe book.

So if you are interested in cooking or baking or just want to try a new recipe, come check the blog out. Please note as this is a new blog, it will constantly be growing so be sure to check back for the latest and greatest recipes.

Much Love,

The Joys of a Monday...

Gotta LOVE Mondays...OK, maybe not. It is probably my least favorite day of the entire week. Just the idea that the weekend is over and it is back to the grind is hard to like. Don't get me wrong, I am truly thankful to have a job during this rough time in our economy but I truly prefer Fridays better :)

Anyway, my hubby and I woke up to a loud noise around 4:45am only to find out a few transformers on our block had exploded. GREAT!! Now that means I will have no hot water and no electric to get ready for work and unfortunately since I get ready at the crack of dawn it is completely dark. With flashlight in hand, I gathered all my clothes, styling products and breakfast so that I can rush to my parents house to take a shower. Ah, it is so great to have family less then 5 mins away!!

On top of that, last night my car didn't start. So for the first time I had to take my hubby's car for my hour commute. Not too thrilled as his car has had troubles in the past but there was no way I was taking his pop's car (or at least not today).

So there was my Monday morning rant... Thanks for reading :)

Share with me some of your Monday troubles...

What is your least favorite day of the week and why? Favorite day?

♥ 4 Years Ago Today ♥

I met the love of my life, Mister Roddy!

I can't believe it is 4 years, it really seems like I have known him much longer than that. The Mister joked around and said 20 years, lol... What a jokesta :)

As you all know, I LOVE him very much. These have been the best 4 years of my life and I cannot wait to see what is in store for us in the future!

Te Quiero Mucho, Senor Roddy!!

♥ MUAH ♥



PS: Once you get married, will you be celebrating the day you first met or started dating or will you only celebrate your wedding anniversary?

I'm a Fabulous Sugar Doll Blogger :)

I cannot believe I received another blogger award from one of my FABULOUS followers. I was scanning through my comments on my latest post to find a comment from my fellow blogger, Born To Be Mrs Beaver, and to my surprise she left me a little goodie on her blog... How exciting!!

So for this one, the directions are simple:

Post the award on your site, write 10 interesting things about yourself, and then pass it on to 10 other bloggers.

10 Fun Facts:

1. In college, my bed set was Scooby Doo. I had the glow-in-the-dark comforter, pillow cases and even a Scooby Doo doll.

2. I am a Step-Pawrent to lovable, slobbering, Chocolate Lab named Buddy.

3. I was a cheerleader in high school (Yes, I was a rah-rah).

4. My hubby and I met through Yahoo! Personals. Maybe we should be in a commercial :)

5. Like Born To Be Mrs. Beaver, I LOVE the Food Network and am a self taught cook and baker.

6. I am a shoe-a-holic. At one time I owned approx. 72 pairs of shoes.

7. My Mom and I planned my sister's 200 person wedding in 2 months. Quite the accomplishment and it came out GREAT!

8. My family is so big that we find a new cousin or two almost every year. We are a BIG fat Puerto Rican family.

9. I am very competitive and most of the time people don't see it coming. When I play a sport or a game, I feel like I got to win or at least try my hardest.

10. I am a perfectionist. I am the type of person that who can type out a whole sentence and if a word is incorrect or misspelled, I delete the entire sentence to re-type it. I know, I can be anal. It's not always a bad thing!!


And the fellow Bloggers I would like to pass this award onto:

August15Bride
I Love Love
San Diego Budget Bride
Sweets and Life
Live.Love.Laugh
A Girl with Pearls and a Boy with Toys
Lucky in Love
Cross Country Wed
Encore Bride
"I Do" at the Zoo

Have fun my FABULOUS Sugar Dolls!

Fell Off The Wagon...

The 30 Day Shred wagon that is.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that I have fallen off the wagon. I apologize, Encore Bride, but with the move I seemed to have hurt my back and it just hasn't been the same. It is getting better though, I just have to put that kind of activity on hold. I have been suffering from random flair ups so I have been icing, heating and taking Tylenol to ease the pain and soreness when needed.

To all the shredders, please don't let my excuse be your excuse. You can do this! It is a great workout and I cannot wait to jump back on the wagon!

So good luck my fellow shredders. I can't wait to hear about your progress!

Sticker Giveaway Winner!

And the winner to my Sticker Giveaway is...

Brittney

from the

Sand Dollar and Sunflowers blog

CONGRATULATIONS Brittney for winning this awesome prize! Please contact me with your full name and email address via email to theroddybride{at}gmail{dot}com by midnight EST on Wednesday, October 28 or I will have to select another winner.

A HUGE thanks to all those who took the time to participate in my giveaway. Try again soon for another chance to win one of my fabulous giveaways from UPrinting.com.

The winner was selected at random using the list generator from Random.org. There were a total of 41 entries submitted.

Below is the intial list of each poster and their total entries:

I took the above list and wrote out the poster's name the number of times that match their total entries. I then submitted the list to Random.org.

Below are the results:

Again, thanks for entering! Come back soon!!

Final Reminder for Sticker Giveaway

Just wanted to send out a reminder about my Sticker Giveaway that ends this coming Sunday at midnight, EST.

For full details, click HERE. Be sure to tell a friend too!

Good Luck!

The Music - Walking Down the Aisle

Since some of my fabulous readers have never heard or heard of the song I chose to walk down the aisle to I wanted to post the lyrics...Sorry but you won't find the original video on YouTube.

Anyway, I chose, So Beautiful by Musiq Soulchild.
Lyrics provided by eLyrics.net.


So Beautiful

[Verse 1:]

You're my baby
My lover, my lady
All night you make me
Want you it drives me crazy

I feel like you
Were made just for me, baby
Tell me if you
Feel the same way

Cuz it just feels so right
I don’t wanna waste no time
If I had to choose I know
I'm gon' always choose to be with you
Cuz, girl don’t you know

[Chorus:]

Girl don't you know you're so beautiful
I wanna give all my love to you, girl
Not just tonight but the rest of your life
I wanna be always here by your side

Girl don't you know you're so beautiful
I wanna give all my love to you, girl
Not just tonight but the rest of your life
I wanna be always here by your side

[Verse 2:]

When you're not here
You don’t know how much I miss you
The whole time on my mind
Is how much I'm gonna get to make

You feel so good like you know I could
Tell me if you
Feel the same way

Cuz it just feels so right
I don’t wanna waste no time
Girl if I had to choose I know
I'm gon' always choose to be with you
Girl, don’t you know

[Chorus:]

Girl, don't you know you're so beautiful (Baby)
I wanna give all my love to you, girl (My love, to you girl)
Not just tonight but the rest of your life (Your life)

Girl don't you know you're so beautiful (Always here by your side)
I wanna give all my love to you, girl (I wanna, wanna give all my love to you, girl)
Not just tonight but the rest of your life
I wanna be always here by your side

Ooo Whoa...
Ooo Whoa...
(Hey baby...)
Ooo Whoa...
Ooo Whoa...

(Breathing)

Baby don’t you know (Baby don’t you know)
You're so beautiful, beautiful)

Baby don’t you know you're so beautiful
Baby don’t you know (Baby don’t you know)
You're so beautiful, beautiful)

Baby don’t you know (Baby don’t you know)
You're so beautiful (beautiful)

(Breathing)

Sorry!

Sorry for being MIA! I promise I will post again soon once I dig myself out of all the boxes from the move and actually set up my computer again!

Much more in store to read...Stay tuned! :)

Happy Friday Everyone!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS Friday and weekend!

This weekend is the big move for the Roddy family. We are moving tomorrow back to my hometown and finally we will be done with all this packing. I cannot express how excited I am to be back home! I have been away for a decade but it was always home to me.

So a few goodies are to come in the near future...

• A guest blogger will provide a vendor review for Top Hat Tuxedos
• A new blog filled with me and the Mister's favorite recipes that we have gathered through the years. It is our chance to share one of our loves with you.

...more to come so stay tuned!

Don't forget to sign up for my latest giveaway from UPrinting.com, the Sticker / Label giveaway!

74 + 120

74 is for the number of FABULOUS readers that are now following me.

120 is the number of posts that I have created for this blog.

I can't believe it! I have been plugging along I didn't even notice that I hit my 100th post and I am so happy that I have you following me!

I started blogging earlier this year while I was planning our wedding. I was VERY new at it, so I apologize to my early followers on the amateur-ish blog I was providing. As I write more posts, I find myself more comfortable. When I first started this blog I was extremely nervous. For one, I didn't think anyone would find my words interesting enough to read and two I was nervous what people thought about me and of course my writing. BUT you all have proved me wrong and I THANK YOU for that!!

So THANK YOU for being my loyal followers!

The 30 Day Shred - Week 1

Week 1 (level 1) started yesterday for our 30 Day Shred challenge. OK, let me tell you how SORE I am, lol. Just a few minutes after completing the workout, I was so sore I had to find assistance with the walls to walk down the stairs...bad part is that my bedroom is on the 3rd floor. YIKES!

So here is what I think about the dvd... I found the first level to be quite challenging. After completing the first round of level 1, I was saying to myself, "this is it" (not confusing it with MJ's new song title) but then I realized that there were two more rounds. Oh my. Jillian really is good. Very little chit chat and I believe a decent description of every move.

I would actually say this is a good workout in comparison to the p90x. It isn't as intense but I think it was perfect for any woman to participate and get the results they require. Her combination of Strength, Cardio and Abs is perfect for shocking the body into shaping up. The one thing I can't recall is whether we had a good amount of stretching of the lower body before starting the program, which I know I desperately needed. Sadly though, I am looking forward to working out today.

So here are my beginning stats for the week:

1. Starting weight -- 160 (Ouch!)
2. Current weight -- 160
3. Goal weight -- 130
4. What level you're doing -- Level 1

I do not have the following stats as I must have packed up my measuring tape for the move. I will have these results next week.

5. Bust measurements
6. Waist measurements
7. Hips measurements
8. Thigh measurements (widest part of the thigh)

So how did you all do?

Good luck with the rest of the week. Remember that you can do it!