Back to the Grind....

Back from Vacation.......

We had the most amazing time~ just magical.

Highlights Included: 

swimming in the ocean everyday in blue waters and white sparkling sand ~ huevos rancheros~ snorkling~laying out poolside in the morning and in the afternoon~sipping on passion coladas~being asked if we were honeymooners ~great tans~shrimp ceviche~jet skiing~outdoor sunset dinners overlooking Lands End~never knowing what time it was~horseback riding~finding out  justin passed the boards~ parasailing~mexican sweet breads~no emails~live music

~oh the list just goes on and on~

Good times, Great Memories~ Excited to Start the New Chapter

Read more...

What's the haps???

Wow.... what in the world ~  for it being summer time, I'm kind of blown away with how busy life has
been the past few months...  

I have tons of fun photos to share but until I can spend a good chunk of time uploading and editing... I thought I'd update you all with some snippets on life...

The Happenings the Highlights.....
July 2011
1.) 4th of July...not too much to report just some fun with few friends
2.) Spent some quality time shopping with my lil mama sita.  She's on a new crazy kick, involving all kinds of little treasures~more on this later
3.) "J.Starr Stylized Weddings" did some venue tours
4.) We flew to Berkeley to visit Trevor and had a blast ~ I just love San Fran, that place has such a unique vibe about it, we had some fun adventures
5.) I won the "Coolest Wife of the Year Award"...being that I went to the Perfect Circle concert with Justin (one of his all time favorite bands)
6.) I got to visit Baby Kayla, Andrea and Jessy's darling little baby girl who had quite the battle in her first few weeks of life ~ but she's recovered beautifully.
7.) Roomie Catch Up with Melissa and Andrea over Greek food followed by Gelato


August 2011
1.) Social Grace Studios snapped some crazy cute photos of Miss Kendall Tuttle (Tony and Jacquie's lil one).  It was the girlyest of photo sessions ever, when you see the photos you'll know how happy Jacquie is to finally have her lil girl after having her two rough and tumble lil boys.
3.) JUSTIN GRADUATED!  Holy cow, it was quite an emotional rollercoaster, but it happened, it really happened. We had an amazing weekend with our family and dear friends.
4.) Lunch date with Jessica Fortman ( a Seville survivor) catching up on old times and discussing  fun plans for the future~ Jess is starting her own accounting business!
5.) FIRST OFFICIAL "J.Starr Wedding" at the Royal Palms with the help of my lovely assistant Melissa Jonovich
6.)  Speaking of Melissa, we celebrated her 30th with her family at her "Retro Glam" Bday Pool Party. Justin and I surprised her with a photo booth, compliments of Social Grace Studios.
7.) Slumber Party with Mom, followed by a day of shopping
8.) Head shots of Jessica for her new business, and family photos of the adorable Fortman Family.
9.) Renata accepted the position of Food and Beverage Director at Superstition Springs!! This is a BIG deal, I'll explain more later!
10.) More family photos, this time of the Pretty Palmer Family.
11.) A Girlie Sleepover over at the Valley Ho Hotel, Celebrating Melissa's Birthday part deux w/ Friends.
12.) Justin shot a Wedding at Anthem Golf and Country Club
13.) My girl Addie Jo turned 30! We headed down to Casa Grande to celebrate w/ her and her family
14.) Followed by a Happy Hour at Canteen the next day on Miss Young's actual b-day with friends


What's on the Horizon....
1.) Justin has to take the boards in the near future, so my house has felt like after school dentention for the past 30 plus days.  This is the last mountain he has to climb before he can start practicing as a Doctor of Physical Therapy..... .. I love my husband with all my heart, but I'm SOOOO ready for his schooling to be OVER.
2.) Thankfully, following this big monster of an exam we'll be flying away to Cabo for 7 days of paradise, we've been looking forward to this time for many many years in the making. 
3.) My little Stinks turns 21!! I can't believe it!! 

My Wheels are Turning About......

1.) "J.Starr Stylized Weddings"... after many discussions with my boss at Superstition Springs, we've come up with a beautiful plan and partnership idea for my company.  All the pieces are finally starting to come together, I'm so excited!  I'll be sure and blog in detail about this soon~ I've learned such an important lesson through this process..... You only live once, chase after your dreams...even if you can't figure out how to make them happen, just keep plugging.... the pathway will work itself out, but don't be afraid to take the first step... I'm really happy, appreciative, and thankful for where I'm at in my life right now professionally ~ I surrounded by happy, positive people...who are aware of my passions, my strengths, and my weaknesses... I have a lot of work ahead...but I'm so darn excited...I feel like I'm riding a carnival ride through the journey. 

2.) I've been working really hard at few my top 101s....and not the easiest of goals, the timely ones....but I'm glad that they're being put into action.

3.) Our 9th Annual Halloween Party....Yahoo!!  Date, Time, Location, DJ, and Theme of all been selected!!  Invites going out soon, SAVE the DATE: Friday October 21st, 2011.

Recent Things I think are Just Plain Cool....

1.)  My smartphone, yeah  I know it's not like the "newest" thing..but wow... that little device can pull my world together so quickly... and hello the Navigation Feature is a life saver!

2.) Venti Ice Waters from Starbucks, they're free and I feel cool drinking them

3.) The Valley Ho, that place is fun....the dj spinning poolside makes you feel like a spring breaker on mtv
4.) The movie..."The Fighter" (it's on netflicks right now) best movie I've seen in awhile

5.) Our upgraded Pandora....no commercials...good stuff

6.) Speaking of music I'm so loving Robin Thicke....he has some sexy, saucy jams... it's really good "getting ready for work music"

Until next time my friends...thanks for reading, thanks for caring... and please update your blogs, call me, or send me an email updating me on your fabulous lives xoxox

Read more...

Happy Father's Day to My Dad...

   He's probably the coolest person I know.   When I say "cool", I mean he is actually "cool".  He just "is". 

~ He's incredibly smart, yet doesn't ever feel the need to act like he knows everything

~He reads.... a lot

~ He could care less about expensive things

~He could easily live out in the wilderness and probably be totally comfortable for a good six months

~He speaks with a soft voice when talking to old ladies and little babies 

~He works out almost daily

~He's an amazing artist, just crazy talented

~He calls me "Gorgeous" as if that was the name written on my birth certificate

~He can sing and play the guitar

~ He loves my mom, my brother, my husband, and even my crazy weenie dogs unconditionally

And so long as my mom always picks out his outfits for him...he's just the coolest dad I know. 

On this father's day we all enjoyed some yummy mexican food at Arribas celebrating Dad! 

Happy Father's Day Dad, I Love You!!! 

 

Read more...

Mr. Handsome's Birthday

This day was just perfect.... just us

  We celebrated Justin turning 31 by just taking it easy. I took the day off from work, turned my phone off, and just enjoyed time together.....

We spent the morning walking around the lake with Sammy and Olive and walked up on a group of people and their handmade boats.  We enjoyed our cups of joe from good ole Coffee Rush and just did some people watching as Sammy and Olive did some people barking. 

For lunch we thought about trying something "new"...after a failed attempt at Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert, we ended up at Oreganos...and enjoyed  some off the hook bloody marys ~
garnished with a pickle, which was delightful.

Then we relished in some fun in the sun....

The night ended with sushi and sake bombers across the lake and then over to visit Chewy and Boston (if you don't know who they are, come hang out with us soon) ~ we'll introduce you to some of our favorite Anderson Springs Bartenders.

Happy Birthday to my Handsome Husband ~ I Love You.

Read more...

Night Out with the Starrs

Just me and "the boys"....

Trevor was in town for the weekend for a reunion with friends... but he kept a night free to hang with us.

It was a chill summer night...starting off with dinner at Dos Gringos in Chandler, moving on to drinks at Tonic, moving on to drinks at Nate's 3rd Base (one of our fav places) and finishing off the night at Native New Yorker. 

 

Read more...

Golf Day at Superstition Springs Golf Club

One very hot day in June, Justin hit the course with Matt, Nate, and Matt's father in law ~Fred.  Justin got to experience what it's like to golf at my stomping ground: Superstition Springs Golf Club. 

I've worked at golf courses now for approx 6 plus years and I've never golfed. To be honest, I really don't get it. But for some reason lots of people love it. It is one of my "to dos" on my 101 in 1001, but I'm thinking I'll wait until it's not 100 plus degrees and hopefully make this happen next time my girl Sarah Gillespie is in town.

But nonetheless, on that hot day in June...these guys still had a fun time.

P.S. I get an amazing rate on golf for family and friends..so let me know if you're ever in the mood to hit the greens.

 

Read more...

On My Mind Today....

Hello Friends!

Okay, so today has been one of those random days where I have a million things on my mind~it's kind of hard to concentrate.  When I get feeling all crazy like...I like to turn to my blog~ it calms me. 

So here we go:

1.) Thank you, Thank You, Thank You to all of our beloved family and friends who joined us in celebrating Justin's big milestone!  I'm still in a state of shock, I never really thought that we would get to this point.  We looked at each other this morning like...Ummm.... this is awkward, what the heck are we suppose to do now???  But don't get me wrong I couldn't be more proud of my amazing husband....now that he's a Doctor of Physical Therapy.....his "hot meter" goes up a few notches for sure ;) More on this in upcoming blogs for sure!!!

2.) Camp Cabo officially starts today! Remember this post from a year ago?? In an effort in achieving goal number # 95 on my 101 in 1001s, I attempted this last August and after two weeks of pure exhaustion I became discouraged and stopped. But this time around I'm making a few adjustments to this goal to make it more realistic and more achieveable (after all, it's my 101 list, I can adjust as needed:), this time and certain stud has offerered to join me!  So this time around I'm committing myself to "Camp Cabo", working our one hour a day for 5 days a week, for the next four weeks.  We've been averaging 3 times a week for 45 minutes for the past three weeks so this should be totally do-able!  And.... you may be wondering why we're calling it "Camp Cabo"... well you guessed right!  As a graduation gift to the both of us, we're going to CABO BABY for 7 days in a luxury resort for total relaxation time!!!  And of course looking like a hot senorita is the goal!!!

3.)  Attention Fellow Bloggers (if you don't blog, don't read on, it will only confuse you)....

Now that I'm One of Those "Private Blog" People

Add http://justinandjenniferstarrblogupdates.blogspot.com/ to your automatic updater on your blog list.
So this little blog will be public~ I got this very smart idea from Miss Allison!
To keep up with my blog a little better (especially for you non-facebookers) , go ahead and add this to your blog list and I will post on here everytime I update my primary blog.

 Make sense? I hope so, I think I've just confused myself. Thank you for caring and sharing~ I hope even more of my sassy little friends start a blog, it's such a great way to keep up with loved ones in this busy world of ours.

Read more...

Mic Check... Anyone Anyone Bueller?

Grrr... I don't do well with change... but I'm not giving up.

Okay, so my precious little blog is now private, but I concerned that my readers aren't able to log on.    So this is a test, if you can read this blog post ~ please give me a shout via commenting below, on facebook, or by email. Thank you very much!!!

 Justin told me he's spending all tomorrow catching up on editting all of our recent photos, so I'll have some fun posts coming soon.

Read more...

Goodbye Outside World!

Okay, I've been rocking this blog for now 2 Years and 8 months, holy cow!  And now making my little blog is private which makes me kind of sad...but excited at the same time.

Why sad?

Well it was kind of exciting just writing to the world, not really knowing who was reading, who cared, who shared in my day to day thoughts~perhaps connecting on different levels and never meeting them in person.

{Perhaps I can get my fix through my J.Starr Blog~Coming Soon}

Why Excited?

I guess this moment marks our "unofficial" transition into adulthood. 

Now that I'm a business owner and Justin's going to be starting his professional career as a DPT, it's time to share our family and friends stories, photos, and thoughts...with only our friends and family.

So, to all of my loved ones..... I've entered your names into my VIP section and you should be receiving an email invitation and you'll need to accept the invitation into my private blog.

In case you have any issues logging in with your email address~ not to worry...... I've created a random gmail account login and password for you to use and log in with if need be. 

Login in: justinandjenblog@gmail.com

Password: starrblog

I'm sorry you'll have to take an extra step to read....but perhaps it will bring you some relief too....knowing how many possible photos of you will be on our blog in the near future :)

ANOTHER OPTION:  I added a little "Follow By Email" box on my blog in the far right side, if you'd like to be emailed everytime I post a new blog, just add your name in the box and it will send you an email with my blog post in the body of the email.

Much Love!!!

Read more...

VIP Access....

Hi Readers,

In the very near future I'll be launching my J.Starr Stylized Weddings & Events Blog.... so I've finally decided it's probably a smart move professionally to make my "personal" blog~ private.  So if you enjoy reading all the random tid-bits about our little crazy world... email me (at jenniferasu@hotmail.com) or comment below your preferred email address and I'll give you vip access.

Thanks for reading and allowing us to share our lives with you. 

 

Read more...

"Our Dreams, and they are made out of Real Things"....

Read more...

Mom's Birthday

The Month May Equals ~ Moms

Between Mother's Day and Mom's Birthday and Granny's Birthday ~
We do a lot of celebrating in the Month of May!

This time, it was time to Celebrate Mom's Birthday.
 
So, What did we do? We went out to dinner at Tommy's Bistro (is that still what it's called) for a nice dinner out on the patio....the food there is really great, and it's cool because we can walk there from Mom and Dad's Place.  After dinner we returned back home for some gift opening and cake....

A gift from Dad ~ I'm thinking this was professionally wrapped?

Gorgeous Crystal Martini Glasses, Nice job Dad!!

So, a birthday cake for Mom is kind of a running joke in our family.  For some reason, unknown to me each year...between the three of us ~ Me, Dad, and Chase...we can never seem to pull off a decent

 birthday cake for mom. 

All of these years, mom's always gone to these great efforts to always make us all a home cooked dinner complete with our favorite kind of birthday cake. 

It's sad... I think the guys are even more talented in the kitchen than me ~ which is scary...very scary.  We should all really just put Justin in charge of Mom's Birthday meal, I mean really.

So back to the whole "Cake" thing.  After we manage to pull together some decent gifts and get the family all together to celebrate our little Mama Jo... the three us of kind of look at each other dump-founded like... ummm... "did you get the cake"...???... "No"..???.... "did you"...???

In fact one year it was so pathetic I remember Chase I and drove to Chili's to order a slice of dessert "to go"...and when we got back home we realized that they put the chocolate sauce on the side....so we're standing in the living room, stressing out and laughing at the same time trying to "dress up" this ridiculous dessert that was completely melted all over the place.

So this year, I was determined not to let this happen... So I bought a cake, and I found out later Dad bought a cake too.... (double good job Dad!)

But now that I look at the photo, the cake still looks all sad and wimpy....

Aaaahh Mom, we love you. No one can quite get things right the way you do.  We sure do love you. 

Next year Justin will prepare a lovely meal and birthday cake, just for you!!! 

Happy Birthday Beautiful Lady!!!

Muah!

 

Read more...

Granny's Lil Birthday Party

Ever since I threw my Norris Grandparents their 60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration I've been wanting to throw my lil Granny Morris a birthday party for some time now.  She's just the sweetest little lady and is blown away by the smallest of gestures. 

So we threw her a 79th Morning Birthday Brunch!! 

We had to get creative with our space, because our two bedroom condo is a bit challenging to host celebrations in....even with only 7 Guests.

For Granny all the frills were a most.... mimosas, Granny slideshows on the flat screen, flowers with peacock feathers everywhere...

And this is part of the blog post where you'll think I'm crazy.  Like I said hosting even a small party in our condo is a challenge, so....somehow I talked my amazing husband into moving our king size bed out of the bedroom so that I could use this space to entertain.... and it turned out so lovely and comfortable.

We showered the birthday girl with gifts...

And delicious "Southern" catering from Crackers and Company

Granny was blown away.....she's so cute

Chase surprised her with a poem written all about her...

She of course cried......

And my doggies are completely in love with her, so they had to join in the fun too...

Following Brunch we did some toasting to Granny and played a
"Granny" Game. 

The goal was to come up with as many "Granny" sayings you could think of. She's very unique with her "Southern" ways and the things that come out of her mouth sometimes are hysterical!

Mom made Granny a birthday cake, completely from scratch!

And we sang to our little Birthday Girl.

And she made a wish..

And life was good on that Sunday Morning in May. 

The celebration ended with the attempt of capturing a family photo.  It was comical how challenging of a task this was for this group~ but at last....we "kind' of got the shot.

Good Times, Love Lady ~ Cheers to Granny!

Read more...