Is it the Weekend Yet? Oh wait, it still IS the weekend.

I know its still relatively early on Sunday and I can for sure tell people are still partying it up at my apartment pool (I can hear their shouts and splashes from my couch!) but I'm ready for this week to wrap up and move on to NEXT weekend. I LOVE the Fourth of July. I LOVE going to the lake. I'm only working three days this week (woo!), Mark's brother is coming home from Beijing for a little vacation on Thursday (woo!), we get to celebrate our engagement with him since we haven't seen him in months (woo!) and by Friday we'll be lounging on the boat/admiring the lake all weekend! Woo!

Changing subjects COMPLETELY, I saw My Sister's Keeper this afternoon with a couple friends. It was a good movie. It totally puts you into a family with a child dying from cancer and completely breaks your heart. But. Call me the "That's Not What Happened in the Book Police," but Hello?? That's not what happened in the book!! Please. Someone read the book and then go see the movie so we can hash it out.

And because I can't not talk about the wedding, here's the colors I'm leaning towards. We just can't pick anything that even remotely resembles OU crimson. That's Mark's only color request. I'm thinking something in the raisin shade for the b-maid dresses. That's not too OU is it?!



Now I should really go for a run at the gym. I've got my workout clothes and shoes on and everything. But ahhhh I. don't. want. to. Bah. I will though. Bah.

Umm.. this seems to be a reoccurring theme around here.

Hi. It's me.. again. Being a bad blogger.. again. It's not that I've been busy (although I have) or that I don't have things to write about (because I do) or that I'm not spending much time on the Internet (because oh lord, I am). I have no excuse. So once again, straight from my laptop, here's what's been going on over here for the past, oh fourteen days.

Well, most recently, Michael Jackson died. Whoa. So strange. I am enjoying the Tribute To Michael that every radio station in DFW has been playing this afternoon and omg MTV is playing all his old music videos. It almost made me jump on Itunes and buy his greatest hits album. But then I remembered that I AM TRYING TO SAVE MONEY for this (kind of) big deal that I have coming up... you know, the wedding.

So since I officially brought it up, the wedding. It has and hasn't been consuming me. I go through waves where all I want to do it sit online and read wedding blogs and look at wedding photos and agonize over colors and dresses and flowers and decor and DJ's and more more more. Then I have days that go by where I don't want to look at a single bride magazine or even talk about it. We did set a date though, which I'm hoping will be the most difficult decision I have to make because lordy, it was a tough one. Spring? Summer? May? June? July? April? Soon? Far? Middle? Ahh. We have officially booked the church, the reception and the photographer. July 10, 2010. I want it to be less than a year away. I think then I will be able to really feel like its okay to start hard core planning. Because right now, I feel like every vendor who asks me "so when is your wedding date?" is rolling their eyes internally as i try to casually say "oh next summer."

I am so excited for our photographer. So. Excited. Check out his work at www.brooksblog.com. Mark and I are chipping in to cover the costs of the photos because its something we are so excited about and we want to have great photos, naturally. What I didn't want, was for my photographer to take up a substantial part of the budget, so we're taking on a large portion of the photo costs, which doesn't bother me in the least.

I took two days off this week and went to look at dresses with my mom and sisters. I wasn't too jazzed for it, because of the whole my-wedding-is-over-a-year-away thing. But once I started putting those dresses on and once they'd pin the veil in my hair, it got really fun, really fast. I have a good idea of what I'm looking for now. I even found a potential THE dress. But, I've got so much time on my side still, it's just going to sit in the back of my mind, burning a hole until I start looking again. I am taking off more time in mid-July and Mark's mom is going to come up to look with us too.

I also found some FABULOUS bridesmaid dresses that are exactly what I had in my mind. My sisters got to try them on and they looked adorable. The designer is offering a great deal for Summer 2010 brides, so I will likely jump on these pretty soon. But, that requires me PICKING A COLOR. This is all my mom talks about. Colors, colors, colors. We cannot do ANYTHING until we have our colors, according to her. I am really torn on the colors. I have some great options - but I'm afraid of committing to one and ordering dresses and then not being able to go back! One thing I know I want is naturals, greens and whites in my flowers. Green hydrangeas. White peonies. Bright green leaves. So I need colors that will match that. My two front runners are deep royal blues and rich plums/raisin colors. The cute bmaid dresses that I found come in both shades, so I'm weighing my options and trying to sell myself on either one.

Over the weekend, I started working on creating a wedding website. It was quite addictive. More to come, once it gets some more beef to it.

Mark found out this week that HE PASSED HIS PE TEST!!!!!!!! Huge news over here. Finally, he can relax and stop stressing about this stinking test. We went out last night to celebrate with dinner at Texas de Brazil. This was my first time at this place. Let's just say that by the time we left, I wouldn't even let Mark say the word "meat." I was beyond full. But it was Fabulous.

How on earth is the fourth next weekend?! We are heading up to the lake and I cannot wait. We haven't gotten up there even once yet this summer and Mark's brother will be home from Beijing and coming along with us. It's the first time we've seen him since we got engaged (or any of Mark's friends for that matter) so we get to celebrate.. yet again! My favorite part of the summer is going to the lake.. I'm glad it's finally time!

We went to my parents' house last weekend to meet with the priest at the church where we'll be getting married, and to take one last look at the reception site. While we were there, my mom and I did crafts while the boys branded the cattle. Yeah. Branded cattle. No one knew what they were doing. It was horrible and hilarious all at the same time. Mark was covered in mud and cow poop and he has an awesome farmer's tan to show for it too.

Work has been going really great and we've got some fun events coming up this fall. Plus the summer hours are completely spoiling me. When school starts again in August, it's going to be a rude awakening.

It's hot in Dallas. Like really hot. Argh. I am enjoying some quality time at the pool though. This summer is flying by, like always.

Again..

Today was a rough morning. It started with the rain. If you live in Dallas, you know what I'm talking about. This wasn't just your everyday summer rainstorm. This was a serious torrential downpour/thunderstorm/lightening storm that lasted a good 18 hours. The last thing I wanted was to climb out of bed and go to work in this weather! But.. I did. I took the "late shift" at work today (8-3, as opposed to the 7-2 I've been working this week) so I needed to leave by about 7:40. I put on my raincoat with the hood and packed my purse into a bigger canvas bag so it wouldn't get drenched, opted to change into tennis shoes instead of my standard summer uniform flip flops, and grabbed a frozen meal for lunch out of the freezer. I was getting ready to walk out to door a little after 7:30, to allow for some extra time since I knew traffic would be a mess, when I heard a weird sound. I went to investigate and discovered that water was leaking down from my bathroom ceiling! Like, big time. I paniced. Threw some towels on the ground and watched them immeadiately get soaked, then ran to get three different pots to start collecting the water. I called my apartment office and got the machine.. they don't open until nine, but if this is an emergency, I can leave a message and someone will be paged or something. I looked at the waterfall coming out of my roof and opted to leave the message. Then I called the office to let them know I wouldn't be in on time, since I had to empty out the rapidly filling pots every five minutes or so.

About twenty minutes later, a maintenence guy comes and looks at the flooding water and overflowing pots, then tells me he has to go get a screwdriver, he'll be right back. I'm thinking.. you didn't even bring your tools?! He comes back and opens the panel above my shower, where he determines the water is coming from the bathroom above me. He leaves again, this time for about 30 minutes, and returns to tell me it was a leak from the unit above mine and that he confirmed with the resident up there that he took a bath this morning at about the time the water started flowing down on me. Uh.. gross. Some stranger's bathwater poured all over my shower, floor, towels, rug, everything? I'll be doing some major bleaching when I get home today!

You might remember this isn't the first time this has happened to me.. oh no, I flooded last summer as well. Sigh. I am so ready to get out of this apartment!

Lengthy

About a month ago, Mark and I went up to his parents' house to spend the weekend with them. The purpose of our trip was an early Mother's Day celebration with his mom and a chance to hang out with them outside the hospital (since the last time we had seen them was when Mark's mom was in the ICU). Little did I know at the time, but another reason for the trip was for Mark to pick up my engagement ring from his parents, where he had it shipped.

I remember during our stay Mark and I were on the couch watching the Kentucky Derby and Danica Patrick was a guest commentator (beats me why?). Mark commented that he liked her hair and told me (for the umpteenth time) that I should grow my hair out long. I rolled my eyes. Boys don't get it. Long hair is such a pain. Takes forever to blow dry. Gets heavy and just hangs there. Makes you that much more hot in the summer. Takes up a lot of shampoo and conditioner. Sure Danica looked cute with her long dark locks hanging out from under her huge Derby hat, but I knew that wasn't a practical do for an everyday gal like me. So I gave him the answer I was so keen to using whenever I could - "I'll grow my hair out for my wedding. It's not currently on the calendar, so it's a no go for now."

Fast forward one week later and I had the ring on my finger. I am officially growing my hair out. With one year, one week and one day until the wedding (but who's counting?), I'm expecting some serious inches to be added on by the time I walk down the aisle. My hair has always grown pretty fast. Let's just see if I can put up with it for a year.

Bride Wars

Today was a bit of a halt on my Recently Engaged Aura of Bliss. I had my mind set on a June wedding. I was going to be a June bride, I just hadn't booked the church or reception site to confirm the date, but I had my eye on June 12. Yesterday Mark and I met with a photographer, who I immediately fell in love with. He gave us the "you better pick your date and book us ASAP because we are filling up for next June" speech, so this morning I called the church and left a message with the Office Manger and then called up the reception site to get the scoop on their rules for decorating, just to solidify that it was THE place. Well their rules are nice and lax, but June 2010? Completely booked up! How does a town with a population of 1,500 already have a whole month of weddings booked up a year from now? I want to call up those small town brides and demand that they switch their dates for me!

As per usual, I teared up a little at this discovery. My entire idea of a June wedding went out the window. Now what? There is literally NO WHERE ELSE up there to have a reception. Believe you me. We have looked. And looked some more. Mark and I have said since looong before we got engaged that we wouldn't do a spring wedding. We hate the spring. The fall is just too close. I know I can physically plan a wedding in six months, but I really want a long engagement so I can spread out parties, showers and all the DIY craft projects I've got floating around in my head. Being engaged is fun. I want to milk it as long as I can.

But July? Ahh. That is SO far away. I don't want to rush and get to my wedding, but I do want to BE MARRIED already. Live in the same house as Mark. Get out of my lame-o apartment and move all my stuff up to his place. Have us come home to see each other EVERY DAY. So I cried on the phone to Mark and said yes I could wait until June 12, but July 10? I JUST CANNOT DO IT. He basically told me to sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. I'm already gaining some perspective though. I can wait one more month to have that summer wedding I've been dreaming up for the past month. If we didn't go July, we'd bump it up to May 8, which would be exactly one year to the day that we got engaged. So it's either 11 months or 13 months. I can handle the extra two. I already emailed the photographer and (keep your fingers crossed!) if he's free I'll probably book it all tomorrow and finally have an answer to the "have you set a date yet?" question.

Oh and the very strangest part of my day was that I missed the return call from the church and checked my voicemail after dinner with my mom and sister today. It was from the priest at my parents' church. SOOOOOO weird. He sounded so serious. I am a little bit terrified of calling him back tomorrow. So intimidating!

Oh Goodness!

Where do I even begin? The longer I stay away from the blog, the more I dread coming back to it. It's hard to imagine that I will "catch up" on everything that I've neglected so far. But, here it is in a (lengthy) nutshell.

Since You've (I've) Been Gone:

I lost my still new-ish iPod, bought a new one, lost the new one, found the new one. Whew. Original one still MIA.

Went to Austin for a whirlwind Memorial Day weekend.

Got engaged. I think I may have mentioned that :)

Finished out the school year. Hooray for summer hours, short weeks and casual day everyday.

Resurrected the ol'Book Club. Picked the first new book. Read the first new book. Hosted the first new meeting. Started on Book 2 last night.

Spend a weekend with the future in-laws. Showed off the ring. Revisted the engagement site. Toasted over brunch.

Scoped out some reception sites in Muenster. It's slim pickings out there. But I believe in the power of good lighting and a lot of flowers.

Found a florist that I LOVE. Love, love, love.

Picked out about 28 bridesmaid dresses that I could be perfectly happy with. Haven't really thought too much about my own dress...

Set the date. Haven't 100% committed to it though. Spring Wedding? Summer Wedding? Winter wedding? I can't decide!!!!

Spent a weekend at a friend of a friend's lakehouse. It was cold and rainy, but we had a good time nonetheless.

Met with my BFF's mom twice since the engagement. BFF got married last fall and her mom did all the planning, so she's full of advice and tidbits. She's sending me almost daily emails with pages of information and ideas.

Started my Wedding Binder. So much fun!

Hired a wedding planner. Slash best friend. It's nice having a good friend with her own wedding planning business because she a)gives me a steal of a deal on her rates and b)"work expenses" our happy hours and picks up the tab

Will this blog take on a huge wedding planning theme now? Probably. Not entirely, but likely a lot. What else will I have on the brain for the next however many months?! Tonight Mark and I are meeting with a photographer to hear him out and get some prices. I am super stoked. The wedding photography is one of my most favorite parts of all of this, so I want to get me a good one.