Random Game Night Pictures, a Birthday, and a Prayer Request **UPDATED below

My lovely sister, Katie, posing with her Blueberry Martini in the lovely custom made martini glasses I got as a shower gift from the neighbor ladies. This was at our first Game Night at Joe's place about a month ago. So fun!!


Me and my Blueberry martini. Don't I look just darling? Yikes!


I guess in this game of Life, Joe was the big winner :P

We celebrated my 27th b-day on July 10th. I am starting to feel a little old, but today my mom and I were at Applebee's and the waitress said she thought I was 22! Awesome!

I met my work friends, Leticia and Molly, downtown at Cafe Babareeba, which is a Spanish tapas place. They have excellent food and Mango Sangria :) Luckily, my stomach has been feeling better lately, and I was able to enjoy the food and the company.

Then later that night, my sister and I met my parents and Joe at a little Irish bar right down the road from Joe's apartment called Gaynor's. They do karaoke every Friday and I got to sing 4 or 5 times, which is a lot. All in all, it was a great birthday :)

So now to this week. Sunday after Mass, I got a phone call from mom, and she told me that her youngest sister, my Aunt Carol, had seizured in the pool and was put on life support. Since then, it has been an up and down, rough week for everyone, especially my mom, her family, and Carol's fiancee, Dave, who she was set to marry this Saturday. So far, the doctors and nurses have only given us good feedback, and we are expecting her to be fully restored and back to her normal self; it is only a matter of time. Please pray for my Aunt Carol, for her two sons, for her fiancee, for my grandma, and my mom and the rest of their siblings. We all need strength and patience, we need to remember who we get our help from, and we also need to pray for the doctors and nurses who are caring for her. So far, she has received excellent care and we are only speaking good and positive things. I, for one, continue to praise and thank the Lord Jesus for His faithfulness to our family, and His deliverance and protection over my Aunt from this terrible thing that she is going through. Please pray with us.

Updated on 7/20/09

Hey there. My Aunt Carol has been transferred to a top-notch rehab facility today. My grandma, cousins, and aunt's fiance, Dave, are with her too. She has made some progress, but we have been informed that she will have a long recovery time; she will be at this new facility up to 22 days, and then she will be transferred elsewhere. Please continue to pray. She is still responsive, but very exhausted.

Mom, Grandma Alice, and Carol (in the orange).

Peace,

~Erin

Greetings from Bostwick Lake!

Can you find Tom's youngest son, Donny, in the background? ;-)

Hola! Joe and I spent the last few weeks traveling back & forth between Chicago and the cottage in Michigan, and the last trip up, I stayed while Joe had to go back to Chicago for work. I spent 10 days at the cottage and had myself a good ol' time. Even though I wasn't physically feeling very well and was fighting off all sorts of infections and colds, I still had a great time getting to know my new family without Joe around. Joe did return around the 4th of July and stayed until that Sunday, when we both ventured back to Chicago.


The first weekend up (June 20th) was Mary's baby shower. She is due in September. I tried to take pictures but my camera was being screwy so I'll spare you those. It was a real cute shower at the cottage. The next weekend was my shower in Michigan. It was a gorgeous day outside, and we had the shower at Joe's Aunt Mary's house. We had brunch and then I opened what seemed like a hundred presents; let's just say between my family and Joe's family, we are sitting pretty as we start our marriage. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us! I do have pictures of the shower my mom and Katie threw for me in May, but those pictures are on my sister's camera, and I haven't gotten them yet. I know, excuses excuses...




My new sister Susie helped me as I opened presents by keeping track and recording who gave what, and sometimes pointing out to me who everyone was. The Harmon's have a rather large entourage! Thanks, Susie!




I was so excited that my best friend Katie drove all the way up from Chicago to be at the shower with me. She sat right next to me the whole time which comforted me in a large group of people I don't really know too well. It was so nice to have a familiar face there.




The nieces were in charge of carrying the gifts over to me. Here is a shot of Gracie, our flower girl or mini bride, waiting to give the next gift. While we were up at the cottage, she tried her dress on for me, and she looked just so beautiful. :) I can't wait!

Joe's Grandma Betty couldn't be there, but she left gifts anyways. How sweet! We got Valentine's Day and St. Paddy's Day kitchen towels, and also our cake cutter. Thanks, Grandma!

Grandma was represented at the shower by a sunshine balloon that all the nieces really liked. At the end of the shower, I picked a name out of a basket, and Emma ended winning the balloon.

Joe and I also each were taken out on bachelor and bachelorette excursions. Here is Joe with his brothers at a sports bar celebrating: from left to right, we have Joe's brother John, a family friend with fashion sense named Joe, Joe's brother Peter (the best man), Joe's brother-in-laws Dave and Dejan, and Joe with his brother Tom. Whew!

I was also taken out by my sisters. We has manicures and pedicures that afternoon, then got all gussied up and went downtown for tapas at San Chez, then to an Irish pub called the Black Rose, where we took this photo. From left to right, we have Joe's sister-in-law Sandra, Joe's sister Susie, Joe's other sister-in-law Tiff, me and Joe's other sister Mary. Aren't we gorgeous?

We mostly drank Bailey's on the rocks (and water for Mary), but I was also given a little treat. I ended up not taking the shot the right way and instead sucked it up through a straw. Still equally as tasty though :) Thanks, sisters, for a fun night out!

More cottage pics. Our mini bride and mini groom, Gracie and Johnny, jumping on the trampoline. They are all such cute kids!

Little Joe-Joe and Bella hanging out on the other trampoline. So stinkin' cute!
Bella has learned how to say my name!! She calls me Anin. Adorable!

That was last time we will be up at the cottage until we are married!! We will back up for Labor Day, but this time we'll by husband and wife! And I'll be a little bit older... :

Ooh! I almost forgot about this! Joe's cousins were up the last day, and his cousin Mia is a fire dancer. So she pulled out her fireballs and danced to Thriller. It was pretty cool!

That's it for now. We are super busy with the final throes of wedding planning. It's looking to be a really fun time and we can't wait to see you all there and dance the night away. Mostly, we can't wait to 'seal to deal' and be married to each other.

Blessings!

~Erin & Joe