March Madness.

And no, I don't mean basketball. We've got a lot going on this month. Hence, the word madness.

March marks our 6 month countdown until the wedding (excuse me while I hyperventilate). It's coming up so fast. And while I've been taking things slow for the past few months, this is where all the details start happening. I'd be lying if I said this isn't my favorite part. I'm a very detailed person, so making the table numbers instead of using the generic ones that the venue provides, will be fun for me. Going above and beyond to make a simple "do-it-yourself" buffet menu for each table to view, won't be added stress at all. Michael's trips excite me. It's like Disneyland. Ok, ok...nothing is like Disneyland, but it definitely comes close. It's all the detailed things that really make a wedding unique. And yes, I take pride in being able to do these things on my own. I'm an arts & crafts kind of girl - what can I say.

Can I just take a minute to say how awesome I am for holding back the urge to wear my dress? I'm perfectly content with it being in the closet. However, that doesn't mean I don't go in there, unzip the dress bag, and take a peek at it every now and then. I'm positive this will be a weekly ritual until the day of the wedding. I've learned to accept it :-)

Not only is the month filled with wedding stuff, but it's filled with birthday's gallor! One of them being Jon's 27th birthday. If the wedding wasn't happening, I'd be taking him away for a surprise weekend - but I'm pretty sure our Puerto Vallarta honeymoon trip beats any 'ol weekend trip I would have planned. I'm just sayin'...

This weekend I "plan" (quoted because the likelihood of it happening is slim to none), to do some deep cleaning on the house. I'm talkin', sweeping, mopping, dusting, laundry and vacuuming. I may even hang some pictures and shelves on our plain sandy colored walls - something that I've wanted to do since we moved in......7 months ago. Pure laziness on my part. We don't plan on leaving our place any time soon, so I might as well make it look like people actually live there.

I made a dent in our spare bedroom last weekend (which has conveniently become the room for wedding crap). Jon suggests that I don't spend too much time trying to fix it up - only to redo it next year to make room for......a baby. Yes, we're big fans of wanting to be parents so we won't be wasting any time after we're married. Hopefully this time next year I'll be blogging about morning sickness, gaining weight, acid-reflux and baby kicks to the bladder. I know, I know...I shouldn't plan for things like this, but it's hard not to when it's something you can't stop thinking about.

I've got major baby fever, That's b-a-b-y fever...not b-i-e-b-e-r fever. There's a difference. Just wanted to clarify...

Ok, March! Show me what you've got! Here we go, you'll be over before I know it.

Ode To My Love.

Today is Valentines Day. The day that we show our love and affection to our significant other. The day that card stores and flower shops are full of last minute shoppers. The day that single hopeless romantic's sit with their head in their hands dreaming of that fairytale prince.

Even though we shouldn't need a holiday to show our love, in spirit of it, here's an ode to my love...

I love that he kisses me good-bye every morning before he leaves for work...
I love that he kisses me good-night before we go to sleep...
I love that he's a hard worker and strives to be the best...
I love that he can make me laugh even when I don't want to smile...
I love that he knows me better than anyone else...
I love that with one look in his eyes, I can tell how much he loves me...
I love that I feel safe with him and I know that he'll do anything in his power to protect me...
I love that he comes home with flowers when I least expect it...
I love the way he looks when he first wakes up in the morning...
I love the way he laughs and showing off that amazing smile he has...

And best of all, I love that I'm marrying my best friend.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Moving Right Along.

Saturday was a big day for me. I can't believe I didn't run to the computer right away and write down my excitement.

I got my wedding dress.

It's beautiful. I'm happy that I loved it as much as I did when I first tried it on. I was having all these nightmares that I wasn't going to like it. Four months ago is when I bought my dress. I kept thinking that maybe I would feel differently. What if it didn't turn out the way I imagined it to be? What if the "white" that I got was too white? What if the neckline wasn't right? All these things swirled around in my head. But when she unzipped the dress bag, I got my first glimpse of it. It. was. gorgeous. When I put the dress on I felt like a princess. I purposely continued to ask the lady a bunch of questions so I could keep my dress on longer.

I was able to take it home that day. It's hard knowing that it's in my guest bedroom closet - I just want to put it on and wear it around the house; wash dishes in it; clean; lay; ANYTHING! I just want to wear it! I have a feeling I'll be bringing it to my parents house soon...I'm not sure how long I'll last.

It's February; where has the time gone? We're nearly 7 months away from our wedding. Things are coming along so smoothly too. I haven't been stressed at all. And since the wedding is expensive, I've been finding other ways to save us money. Needless to say, Michaels and the Dollar Tree are my new best friends. They're saving me boatloads of money. I found my favor boxes to hold the candy at the Dollar Tree. They come 10 to a package. I spent all of $26 on all of them for our guests! I was very proud of myself. And don't even get me started on the fabulous coupons that come in the mail every week for Michaels. I've got all my friends and family giving them to me, so I go every day and buy something for 40%...score!

We're heading up to Tahoe this weekend with a bunch of friends. We're staying in a six bedroom condo for the Super Bowl, so it should be a lot of fun! We went to Costco last night and loaded up on $500 worth of food and alcohol. Good times. Have a safe weekend...GO GREEN BAY!

Back.

I can't believe that it's been since October that I came here to write. I was actually going to retire this site and leave it behind, but my amazing other half suggested that I should continue to do what I love to do; write.

I'll admit - I didn't really want to let the blog go. It's my place to come and write. Share with my friends about things that are going on in my life. It's a free write of anything I want; whatever's on my mind. So here I am, finally sitting back down to continue on with a place that is like home to me; a little something special.

I'll cut right to the chase and start where I left off. The holidays were a blast. The weekend after Thanksgiving I couldn't resist the urge to bring out the Christmas decorations. I anticipate Thanksgiving knowing that afterwards I have the "a-ok" to go ahead and start my decorating madness. And yes, it was madness...and yes, it makes me happy. There's nothing like sitting on your couch, sipping hot cocoa, with the glare of Christmas lights from the tree and the smell of fresh pine. It's unbelievably relaxing.

We spent the holidays with family, of course, dividing up time with each so effortlessly. With as many family's as we have to spend time with, I'm surprised that is was done with ease. We continued our family fun with taking an early flight out to Pagosa Springs, Colorado to spend a week at the cabin with Jon's Dad and his family. We had such a great time, I didn't want to leave. I'm a big fan of the snow - and there was tons of it. It snowed almost every day, all day. Every morning there was a fresh layer of powder; so light and fluffy that you could swim in it. We made snow angels, caught snow flakes on our tongues, had countless snow ball fights and rode around on the ATVs. It was the epitome of a winter wonderland...and I was in heaven.

After getting back from our much needed vacation, it was time to spring back into wedding mode. We're actually getting a lot done. Not at all surprising since I am a self-proclaimed organized freak. We finally got our engagement pictures taken and I can't wait to see them! Our photographer is fantastic so I know they turned out amazing.

My dress is finally here. I have an appointment on Saturday to try it on, and I.can't.wait. I just about peed myself when the bridal boutique called me to inform me that it was shipped to them. This means another wonderful day to spend with my Mom and Step-Mom. These times are special and spending it with the two of them means everything to me.

This year is my year. An exciting one. It holds nothing but happiness for me. It will be the year where I become a wife, a sister in-law and a daughter in-law. My new life as a married woman will begin and I could not be more happy.

The Mother Of All Posts

I meant to write a post first thing Monday morning (I swear), but yet again, time just wasn't on my side. So, I'll just have to put it all in one monster of a post.

Sunday was probably the most laziest, interesting, eventful day all wrapped up into one. We woke up to a tree falling on our neighbors' house. We're in a condo, so even though the tree didn't hit our unit, we still felt it. The whole house shook and at first I thought it was an earthquake. Somehow or another the tree managed to fall right onto a sprinkler head and busted the pipes. How convenient. Water was everywhere. Needless to say, we were without water for a good seven hours. It was not fun.

It didn't help that it was pouring down rain......all day. The wind was incredible. People were without power all day and tree brances were flying down the street. Despite the new rain of the season, we decided to make the best of it. We opened all the blinds and watched the sideways rain come down. We opened the kitchen window so we could hear the rain fall on the carport roof. It's one of my favorite sounds. I felt it was a good time to bring out the Halloween kitchen towels to help get ready for the holiday. And what better to enjoy a rainy, gloomy day then to bake chocolate chip cookies. The aroma of the cookies was amazing and the whole house smelled yummy.

Every year around this time I treat my little brother to a night at the pumpkin patch. Even though the kid is 14 now, and about 4 feet taller than I am, it's still "our thing" and we both look forward to it. And of course, like every other year, we had a blast. We picked our wagon and walked along the isles of pumpkins, trying to pick the best ones. Of course we chose the wagon from hell - which obviously had some bolts loose - and it would run over the back of our heels. The damn thing didn't know how to stop. But it made our night because we couldn't stop laughing. The wagon clearly had a mind of its own and decided to roll away a couple of times.

With the end of October here, you just have to sit back and wonder where this month went! It came and went in the blink of an eye. So much happened this month that I can't even believe I survived the craziness.

Halloween is here - which means I'll be hopping on a flight to Las Vegas first thing tomorrow morning for Lizzy's bachelorette party. I've got my dresses picked out an and my costume ready to go. It should be a fun weekend! I'll be back in time for all the Halloween festivities Sunday night though. We'll be at my parents' house shooting pool in my Dad's new man cave (he did such a great job). We'll open the garage door to hand out candy to all the kids; and Chardel will make her delicious chili and biscuits. Good times with great company.

Happy Halloween my fellow bloggers!

Take A Breath.

Can I just take a moment to vent? My life is officially on overload. I'm tired. I'm stressed. And I probably wouldn't even notice if I had my shoes on the wrong feet.

It's been so long since I've posted anything. I've wanted to - I just haven't had the time. There's been about 5 times over the past week that I've sat down and started to write, but something always comes up. Today I stared at a blank post...thinking about something interesting to write about. And don't get me wrong - I have plenty of interesting things I could write about. But I just don't want to. And quite frankly, that's not a good sign.

I've always been a writer. I have no problem sitting down and writing poem's, song lyrics and essays. So I know that life is what's making writing difficult right now.

I blame you School - for taking up my time in the evenings (and even during work, tsk tsk). I hate you and I wish I could wave my magic wand and be done with you!

I blame you Southwest - for charging me $350 for a flight to Las Vegas. It's an hour flight! Why must you charge so much?

I blame you Comcast Cable - for stealing my money. You're not even that great of a cable company...yet you seem to charge the most. Figure it out please.

Wow. Is it sad that I actually feel better after all of that non-sense?

On a happier note, I accomplished something I never thought I could do. I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco on Sunday. I gave myself 3 hours to finish it - and I succeeded. It was rough. By mile 9 my knees were starting to hurt and by mile 10 the rain started to come down. But I didn't care about any of it. I was just excited to be running and proud of myself that I finished.

Did I mention that when you cross the finish line there are suited men handing out Tiffany's finisher necklaces? It definitely made it all worth while. Not to mention that all proceeds and donations went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The views were breathtaking. I couldn't help but stop and take a picture of the golden beauty herself. For some reason, it's the most vulnerable I've ever seen the bridge look. A bittersweet moment for me...

I promise, promise, promise that I won't waste this much time in between posts. I'll be the first to admit that I let time get the best of me.

I'm back in my usual routine and I'll be posting away about life, wedding planning and vacations in no time.

Tonight is a clean-the-house-and-cooking-dinner-while-drinking-a-glass-of-wine kind of night.

Cheers!

And....October Is Here.

The weather sure represents the fall weather today. The wind is blowing; orange leaves cover the ground; and the skies are white and grey instead of their usual bright blue. It was so hard for us to get out bed this morning. It was so cold and all we wanted to do was lie in bed and cuddle. It’s always days like these that make you want to curl up on the couch with a blanket, sipping hot cocoa and watching your favorite movies.

The weekend was fun but busy! I feel like I barely had time to sit down and relax! I was constantly doing something. It was the big weekend where I met with my bridesmaids to officially ask them to be apart of my big day. We met at Elephant Bar and cozied up in a corner booth all to ourselves. We gabbed about life and all the details (so far) about my wedding. I gave the girls each a mini cake personalized to them, with a small note that simply said “will you be my bridesmaid?” It wasn’t a big deal, but it meant something to me. These girls are my best friends, laughing partners and my family.

Yesterday was a big day. I met with my Mom and Chardel to go dress shopping and have lunch. I must have tried on at least 15 dresses. A few I really liked and started to narrow it down. One of the girls who worked at the bridal boutique overheard that I was looking for something chiffon, so she brought me a dress she thought I would like.

I did. I liked it…a lot. Actually, I love it.

So, I bought it. I can’t believe I found “The Dress”. I knew too. I knew it from the moment I put it on that it was the one. I re-tried on the other dresses that I had liked, but none of them even came close.

I originally planned to not wear a veil. But for kicks, I tried one on. As soon as I did, I started to tear up. It went perfect with the dress. Something simple, but elegant.

I leave for Atlanta tomorrow on business…..so until then, have a great week. I’ll be back next week with pictures and new stories.