Oh my word.

My wedding is this weekend. It seems like I have waited forever, and waited hardly at all for this to come. I go back and forth between being so excited, and so nervous I could scream. (But since that would probably be quite annoying, I will refrain from the screaming part...)

A and I moved furniture into our house this past weekend. Now it looks like a house someone could live in, instead of being an empty house. It is beautiful! I'm so excited to start unpacking all the stuff we've gotten!

But have I mentioned that my wedding is this weekend? The beginning of an entirely new, and greatly anticipated chapter in my life. And also the ending of what I'm sure will be one of my favorite and most loved chapters. Bittersweet and absolutely joyful all in one.

Is it any wonder that my emotions are on such a roller coaster?

But regardless of how nervous, or emotional, or just plain crazy with details I get, this Saturday will no doubt be one of the absolute best days of my life. When I can take my best friend's hand and marry him in the eyes of God and our families, and let everyone know I love him best of all.

Sorry...

I'll just apologize now for the next couple weeks or so. As you probably already guessed, my posting will be a bit sporadic for awhile. I've got to get things wrapped up for the big day, and then the honeymoon!

But I will be posting often again after that! Promise!

Sorry, not much here. More later!

This weekend was crazy! Some really good, and some really bad. We got all the carpet out of the house, so that is good. But there is still so much to do! I have lists coming out my ears, and I find myself taking a lot of deep breaths to try and relax and not stress myself out…I’ll try and give a more detailed update on stuff later.

Just an update!

Well, it has just been one of those weeks at work. And today has pretty much capped it so far. I don’t even have enough energy for Friday Favorite Fives today, but it will be back next week.

House update: Last night we stripped the wallpaper out of the kitchen, so it now looks so much brighter and cleaner! I definitely want to get some paint up and see how it will look! We also scoured the kitchen sink and the entire bathroom with very HOT soapy water. It felt good to get all that done! And A showed up with his big new Shop Vac and we vacuumed out the back of the fridge (because apparently you’re supposed to do that every once in a while). We picked the color of our laminate, too. Hopefully this weekend we will rip up some carpet, which will relieve some stress! (But we’ve got our second wedding shower and I’m working on favors on Sunday afternoon, so we will be a little strapped for time! But we’ve already planned on spending Labor Day painting! I can’t wait!)

See you Monday!

Eww. That is about all I can say.

We cleaned the refridgerator (in A and I's new house) last night. Let me just say that was disgusting. I am seriously doubting whether or not these people ever completed basic cleaning periodically. Because I really thought that wiping out the refridgerator is something that most people did every once in a while?

Not this one. And you could tell. There really is nothing more to say.

I need to get busy!

Well this week I’m going to have to get down to business. Really! I figured it up this weekend and there are only about 6 weeks left before the big day. 6 weeks people! And I have tons to do, and the list will only get longer when we take possession of the house. Tonight, the work must start….

Enough of my stress session. Saturday, I actually had a pretty wonderful day full of not doing too much. (This was before I figured up that I only have 6 weeks to go, but I digress.) It was wonderful! I had forgotten how nice it was to just piddle around the house and do little things like cleaning and taking care of the animals and stuff like that. It was really relaxing. And I don’t think I’ll get another one of those until well into October! Oh, well. It’s all heading towards things I really want!

Yesterday was not nearly as relaxing. A and I went to the State Fair demo derby and as the day went on, A kept getting sicker and sicker. He thinks he has food poisoning…and it sure looked like that yesterday! Food poisoning or the flu, one or the other. I was worrying all day, and the derby went on forever, and we had to stay for the whole thing since A had hauled a couple cars up there for his friends. It was such a relief to finally make it home, even for him, and he was still pretty darn miserable. Hopefully, he keeps whatever is wrong with him to himself! I have too much to do to get sick! J

Lately I’ve also been scrounging around for an outfit to wear to my second wedding shower, which is coming up this Saturday. It’s unbelievable how quickly the stores turn from summery clothes to winter clothes! It seems instantaneous! (I know one thing, it IS annoying!) I finally found a pretty turquoise shirt (at JCPenney!) that will work with a black skirt I have…so at least that’s one thing done! Only about a million to go...Wish me luck!

I really need to cut back on the weekend activities...maybe someday I will accomplish that.

I don’t think I’ve had a weekend as busy as the last ever…or at least, in quite some time! I accomplished quite a bit, but I hate feeling like I didn’t get a weekend.

Friday night was the Heart concert, and it was AMAZING! Ann Wilson sounds just as good live as on a CD, and Heart overall puts on a really good show. Lots of hit songs, and engages the crowd really well. Or at least, I thought so! I bought a lovely t-shirt that lists the tour cities and has a cool logo of “Heart” on the front. (I was really wishing I could where it to work this morning, but alas! I am limited to my so not as comfortable dress clothes. Such is the life of a state worker, unfortunately. Just wait until I get my bookstore! Jeans everyday!)

After getting home at 1:30 on Saturday morning (this is quite a feat for me, as I’ve never been one of the stay out all night people…I like to stay home and be a hermit most of the time), I got up at 8:45 to go with A and his parents to go shopping for wedding supplies at Sam’s. We got a ton of plates and cups, let me tell you! But overall, the trip was really successful. A and I even managed to bring home a mattress, foundation and frame! After all of our unsuccessful bed-buying trips, we managed to get a bed in under 20 minutes! It was amazing, and we are glad to have that done! We also ordered our new carpet for our new house…as soon as we take possession we will be ordering some laminate flooring as well (we need to match up with some woodwork on the walls). I’m so excited to get started!

Yesterday, (Sunday for you what-day-is-it people) I went to the birthday party of our flower girl (she was 4) and packed some boxes when I got home. Or at least, a box and a half…I’ve got plans to work more on that when I get more boxes.

And on top of all of that, I have been writing random thank you notes, and playing some Wii Pacman stuff, and trying to figure out what colors go well with “Cobweb” carpeting!

Can you say tired?

No turning back now!

Well, the thank you notes from the shower went out in the mail today...along with a big fat pile of wedding invitations! There is absolutely no turning back now! (Not that there ever was, I'm just saying.)

This weekend will be absolutely crazily chock full of stuff. Wedding stuff, fun stuff, other stuff. Just stuff. I hope I'm up to the job! I have a concert on Friday (Heart! Woohoo!), a trip to Sam's on Saturday (which I will not be driving for...I definitely plan to be sleeping), and a 4 year olds birthday party on Sunday. I may just be looking forward to coming to work on Monday! Or not.

And hopefully soon all the RSVPs will start rolling in!

Oh my.

Finally! Some progress!

We finally, FINALLY have a closing date for our house! That would be tomorrow. It’s such a relief to be making some tangible headway after the major struggle this has been! (I know I haven’t posted about it all here, but suffice it to say, it has been very frustrating at times.) After closing, we will take possession of the house 2 weeks later, or possibly sooner, depending on how the current owner’s moving goes.

I absolutely cannot wait to get in there and start renovating! Look out pastel pink walls, here I come!

Details, details!

Well, details you wanted, so here they come.

Sunday was A and my first wedding shower (of 2 total) and boy was that an event! Though it was a little nerve wracking to sit up in front of about 50 people (albeit my family and friends) all come to sit and watch you, we had a lot of fun. And got a lot of wonderful stuff, too!

Remember this post?

Well, I managed to acquire this:

Which I’m syked about! I can’t wait until we get our house so I can get it out of the box to look at….

And my parents gave us this fabulous thing:

Can you say excited? Well, I was. And am. This little item was not going to stay in the box until we got into our house and could put it away. (Actually it was out of the box within a couple of hours of getting everything home! I couldn’t help myself.)

We also got a quilt made by my Grandma. It is beautiful, and is a whirling hexagon pattern made of blue and yellow (I love those two colors together—it matches my current bedroom!) Everyone at the shower was quite impressed, of course. We even had one of A’s groomsmen wishing he could get one, too! (And really, who could blame him? I would have been jealous of that quilt if it was not mine…which it is. Yay!)

We got a nifty clock that we can put pictures in around the edges, another big skillet, several towels, enough wooden spoons for about 3 houses (but I don’t think you can ever have too many), 2 cutting boards, a knife set, a handheld mixer, a blender, a quesadilla maker (!!!) and of course, A’s favorite 2 things.

The vacuum cleaner (which I’m thrilled to have) from his parents is one of his favorites, and of course, the present from his grandparents is the other. It’s a barbeque grill. Nothing fancy, but since he’s a guy it is right up his alley. And I think I’ll enjoy it, too!

That’s barely making a dent in everything we got (it was amazing!), though we’ve gotten it condensed now into a little corner in my basement. It originally filled up our entire living room floor when we got it home!

Now it’s on to the thank you notes…not that I mind too much. But would it be too much to ask for Walmart to put the cute varieties more than 10 to a pack? I mean, really. ☺

Is a calm weekend in my future? The prognosis doesn't look good...

The wedding rings are bought and in and now we can get married for real! Well, we could have before I guess, but now A’s ring is in and we have picked it up so now we both have one and dontcha know that works so much better? And let me tell you, that ring is a beaut. I think he chose well. It’s silver colored and made of titanium, a real plus when you consider that he pours concrete. A tough metal ring is a good thing.

We have also picked up some carpet sample books and we are starting to work out logistics of what to replace and what to replace it with and of course, what colors to choose to go with the paint colors that I haven’t picked out yet either. But it is fun! And we found some super soft carpet that I think I could take a nap on quite comfortably. So soft. So, so soft, you could lay your face on it. I very nearly did in the store, but I refrained due to the fact that I have no idea who touched that carpet before me.

A and I rounded out the weekend by seeing our flower girl try on her dress (which my supertalented future mother-in-law made—very pretty) which was adorable. She liked to twirl her skirt where she could see it in the mirror. And we (A and I, not the flower girl) played some computer. FATE-Undiscovered realms. It’s quite delightful if you enjoy non-gory monster killing and magic spells and stuff. He fights the monsters and I control the health potions to make sure we don’t die. We have a very good system going, as I’m a bad fighter, and he gets so caught up in the fight that when he’s supposed to use a potion he doesn’t realize it and we die. So in the end our strategy has turned out to be very successful (level 23 is where we are currently battling, just in case you’re interested).

Oh, and we went to a figure 8 demolition derby on Saturday night. I didn’t really pay much attention because a friend I don’t get to see much was there and we were catching up, but what I did see was too many cars flipping over too many times. I’m so glad A does not do derbies anymore. My heart health has improved immensely.

Busy, busy!

Well, I promised we would have more later, so heere weee goooo! (Insert voice of game show host of your choice!)

Yesterday was a crazy afternoon, but I got quite a bit accomplished! I had my first dress fitting, and it was awesome! (I just love my dress. *dreamy sigh*) I also bought some earring that might work for wedding day, and I bought supplies for my favors, and scoped out some other stuff for future projects. This took visiting 4 different stores, all within a couple of hours. (Let me tell you, I was moving!)

I went to a flooring store that has been highly praised locally as well, to check out their supplies a little and to see what time they are open on Saturdays so that A and I can go back and scope things out together. I think we will probably end up going with them, because I’ve heard great things about their service and prices, and the dude in the shop let me take home a whole sample book when all he has is my name and phone number! I didn’t have to sign any sort of paper to check it out or anything…it seems like just the sort of business we like to deal with. Small townish and trusting. Which a lot of times means they are trustworthy as well. Which is a good thing, of course! I can’t wait to get my house so I can get down to business on picking out flooring that matches walls and cabinets and all that stuff! We should get it soon, but the waiting is driving me bonkers!

Then I went home and didn’t get quite as much accomplished, but I was whooped. Physically and mentally and I just didn’t have that much left in me. But A and I did get some stuff figured out for where we want to go in Disney while we are there. I am getting so excited! Everything is suddenly seeming very very REAL.

Hopefully, this progress will continue! I’m a little too realistic to believe that A and I (who take a very long time to make simple decisions sometimes…we are fairly indecisive people. And those who really know us would say that is putting it mildly.) can continue in this vein for too extended a period, but a girl can dream, right?

Oh, who am I kidding? I DO know however, that everything will get done by the end! We just might take a while to get there! ☻

Just some stuff...

Last night the addressing of the invitations hoopla began. Kind of. See, we were getting everything laid out so we wouldn’t forget and envelope or something like that, when I realized we don’t have the stamps to put on the RSVPs just quite yet. So I was addressing envelopes and stuffing invitations halfway…I had to leave the inners outside the outers so the RSVP can be added after we get stamps for them…so after all of that I addressed about 10 invitations and called it a good start! Only about 115 more to go…whew. I’m going to have to start exercising my fingers to get them in shape for that! (I also discovered that I have no concept of where to start writing names to get them centered on the envelope. I improved the longer I wrote, but good grief. I was seriously center-impaired at the start!)

A and I are also getting ready to pay off the honeymoon trip to Disney (Woohoo! I’m so excited!) to try and avoid having all the wedding bills come due at one time. It will be a kind of painful experience (figuratively), but I think it will definitely be worth it! I’ve already started trying to figure out which parts I want to go to and what attractions I want to see, and which characters I want to see the most (that would pretty much be all of them!). This is kind of a big deal for me since I love all things Disney (yes, I still do) so I want to make the most of it!

Hopefully this week will continue to hold progress. Tomorrow is my first dress fitting (crossing my fingers here!), plus I need to do some shopping for a few more wedding supplies, plus A’s ring is supposed to come in soon (I would love to get that in this week, too!). I’m just hoping my energy holds out long enough to get everything done!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...and a couple other tales

Since school is getting ready to start again for both of my sisters (but not me! Woohoo!) last week was the annual school shopping trip (which I did not get to go on, since, well, no more school for me at the moment. Boo. I love new pens and paper.) from which my sisters both returned with a myriad of brightly colored school supplies. Including one full length teal mirror and one short square bright pink mirror (the frame not the mirror itself was covered. But you probably already knew that.). Those mirrors were, well, nothing short of awesome! I wanted one! Especially since H and M told me they come in all sorts of lovely bright colors. Which, ahem, I LOVE.

So last Friday, I made a trip into Walmart on my way home. Yes, you heard correctly. I took a detour from the mad dash leisurely drive home in order to go into Walmart, store king of chaos. What was I thinking, you ask? I was thinking of those lovely mirrors, of course, and I wanted one just bad enough to brave the masses…which actually didn’t turn out to be too bad. I ran into more Walmart associates than customers, which is a nice change, I have to say. Anyway, I went straight to the new college back to school stuff, located right in front of the door, and zeroed in on the mirrors. I chose a full length mirror, which is kind of royal blue, or blue violet or whatever you want to call it. I call it pretty!

Then I made a trip to the pen section, which is strangely situated a row separate from the rest of the back to school stuff. (What was in that separating row, you ask? Ziploc bags. I know. Weird.) But I FINALLY found the pens after a short and organized search of the surrounding area (because really, when am I ever not organized? Wait, don’t answer that.). I perused and tested grips and made sure I was not grabbing gel pens (because they hate me so much that even brand new pens stop up and DO NOT WORK. They just don’t. So I’ve decided to not like them right back. But that’s another story.). I finally found a 2 pack of lovely blue pens, with a gripper that was THERE, meaning I could see it, and it was not just a stick pen, but was not too big to the point that my hand will barely hold onto the thing. Ahh, the perfect pens for…addressing my invitations!
My wedding invitations to be exact. I have begun the lovely process of searching out addresses, which funnily enough seem to know I’m looking for them and vanish into thin air! But progress in that department has been made. Enough so that I feel comfortable with starting to actually put the invitations into envelopes and address them. Which means I’m getting closer to mailing them. Which means my wedding is shockingly near! I’m excited and nervous and a host of other emotions. But now you understand why I needed pens, and good ones, so desperately. My hand will be sore enough without fighting horrible pens. And I wanted to get in on the school supply action, too… ☺

Progress! Woohoo!

It’s almost time to send out my wedding invitations! I can’t believe it has gotten here so quickly!

Last night I decided to type out the entire guest list with their addresses, so that everything would be really organized and all the addresses would be in one place and I wouldn’t have to go searching and sifting and digging for them. Good idea, no?

Except I seem to be missing several addresses. SEVERAL. I’m going to have to do some major research in the next few days in order to bring my list to completion.

And except that once the list printed out, even without all the addresses, it is 10 pages long! (That may have something to do with the fact that I’m very computer illiterate sometimes, and cannot perform the simple task of making a list 2 columns wide instead of 1. But it will work for my purposes!)

The other day I also got my cake topper and my unity candle holder. Both are beautiful (in my eyes, anyway, which is all that matters, seeing as how I picked them and all that), but my cake topper blew me away! It’s exactly what I was wanting and looks 10 times better in person than it did in person! Take a peek:

I seem to be making progress in the planning department! And a good thing too, we’re almost down to only 2 months left before I walk down the aisle!

Completely random, and yet very informative!

I really don’t know what has gotten into me. I’ve been baking desserts like crazy! First was the Amish Cinnamon Bread, then the Rice Krispie Treats. And last night I used some of the blackberries I picked with my grandma and made a blackberry pie. No word yet on how it turned out, as we haven’t eaten it yet, but it looked ok. And I’m sure I didn’t mix up and put salt in instead of sugar, so hopefully it will taste ok too…we will see.

Side note: I’ve noticed that if I’m reading a book based in a different country or time or just somewhere that speaks in a different manner than I usually do, that I tend to use mannerisms from my current read. Like for HP I would start phrasing my sentences like they do and using British slang sometimes. Completely unintentional, I assure you. Is this something some of you other book readers have noticed yourselves doing? Or is it just me? **shrugs**

Wedding update: Not a big update, sorry, but I thought it might be interesting to some that I’m having my first dress fitting next Wednesday. So we’ll see how that goes! I’ve been slowly but surely checking things off the master list I have of EVERYTHING that still needs to be accomplished by October 3rd…this would probably be more effective if I didn’t keep coming up with one more thing that I need to do! Which just reminds me of something else…

Second side note: Remember the treat cat? (If not, check her out here.) Well, she also possesses a very curious nature. (Which makes perfect sense, seeing as how she’s a cat and all.) And we have a big trash can on our back deck with a hole in the lid. Not a huge hole, but large enough for say…a cat to climb through so that she can take a nap in the trash can! I went outside last night and found her pulling herself through this flimsy hole. Who knows how long she was there. And who knows what she was doing in there. I don’t ask, and she doesn’t tell. Not that I talk to my cats or anything. **Ahem**

Next in line for book reading after I finish my current series (the Born In trilogy by Nora Roberts, which I’ve already read several times, but quite enjoy), I’m heading into the world of Jane Austen. I have ambitions to read all of her novels. Which is saying something. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice several times, and started Emma once, but have had little success otherwise. This time I am determined to succeed! (Insert encouraging exclamation of choice here)

And I didn't even break a sweat...

It seems lately that most of my weekends are filled up with all sorts of activity. (I know, I know. That’s no surprise when you’re planning a wedding and trying to get everything done in time. But that’s beside the point. Well, not really I guess. But we’re going to move on anyway!) This past weekend was EXTRA full! Especially Saturday.

Saturday morning I went with A to meet up with his parents, sister, aunt and grandparents to go to a breakfast fundraiser to benefit S’s (A’s sister, and my future sister-in-law!) organization. It’s a nonprofit organization specifically designed to help people with disabilities and their families. An absolutely wonderful organization. And aside from the fantastic cause we were supporting, I’m always up for breakfast!! **Ahem**

After breakfast (which was quite fun), A and I went back home to have his truck washed by the flag corps my youngest sister is part of. They were having a carwash fundraiser…and his truck really needed washing. I mean REALLY needed it. We were just giving our support left and right!

Then we drove by our soon-to-be home, because we like to do stuff like that. You know, make sure it’s still standing and all. Then we headed to the city to buy wedding rings and go bed shopping! We managed to have great success with the wedding bands, but not as much with bed hunting. We found some mattresses that were comfortable and found a bedframe that we really liked, but we’re not quite ready to buy. We need to finish our research, ya know.

Then came yesterday. (It was Sunday for all you people who might not have picked up on that. Oh, wait, I know none of my readers would have missed that because you are all so intelligent. So scratch that.) Went to church, then home, then to the grocery store to get Rice Krispies to make treats for snack day, then home again. I made my first Rice Krispie Treats (Definitely a category 1 Success!!) and then me and my family (parents and sisters) headed out to watch Harry Potter 6. (Because we are Harry Potter dudes and we’re cool like that.) It was good! Of course they chopped it up and left stuff out and changed it a bit, but it’s been that way for all the movies and if you don’t like that kind of thing, you should just read the books. Which are way better. But you already knew that. I then had my first trip to Ruby Tuesday’s, which was yummy, and then a trip to Cold Stone Creamery. Always worth the trip and the money! They threw my ice cream across the room and caught it in the dish! Way cool. (And you really can’t go wrong with Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. It is perfection, after all.)

Whew! Out of breath just reading that! And that wasn’t even quite everything! (I also made a trip to visit A after I got back from the movie, but you probably figured out that one of those was going to fit in somewhere. ‘Cause you’re smart like that.)

So, I’m off to catch my breath and you should do the same probably! Toodles!

Friday Favorite Fives...only a litte late this time

I know I promised you could see my engagement pictures...so here I've put some of my favorites! Five of my favorites, to be exact! What do you think?

We had so much fun doing these, I think we would take pictures like this much more often if we could afford it! :) Wedding pictures should be just plain AWESOME!

Here Comes the Bride...

Mom and I spent the evening figuring out which song to play when and which parts to play and which to cut for the wedding. It went so much more easily and smoothly than I expected it to go! For once it was not too hard to make a decision, because all the songs I had picked seemed to fit for a certain section of the ceremony (for the most part anyway). And this was something that I had been thinking would end up being fairly difficult...because do you have any idea how hard it is to find songs that are unique and pretty and sound good when sung acapella? Let's just say, it's no walk in the park, because you have to avoid songs with long instrumental breaks, and the words become suddenly the absolute most important part--there are no instrumental riffs that sound gorgeous to cover up an awkward lyric.

Putting all the difficulties aside, though, I'm darn excited about my choices! Everything I accomplish now (since we are so close) makes the whole thing seem so much more a part of reality than a dream of the future! Only about 3 months to go!!

Engagement pictures

Sorry its taken me so long to get to this! A and I had an absolute blast doing our engagement session! We went 4 or 5 different places and did several different types of poses at each place, and laughed and carried on like crazy. So much fun!

I got the pictures back the Thursday after we took them, and I really can't find a single one that I don't like something about. Most of them I absolutely love...I'm having a horrid time trying to pick which ones I should order more or bigger prints of. And everyone who looks at them just says how wonderful they are, and really doesn't help narrow down the search at all! :)

Hopefully, when I'm posting pictures of furniture I will figure out how to post some of the engagement pictures that I particularly like. But no promises, as I am extremely technologically challenged...