Kick Your Boots

don't forget!

2011-09-14T18:28:00.000-05:00

that my blog has moved! check it out at

http://braverthanyoubelieve.wordpress.com/

We've moved!

2011-09-06T09:06:00.002-05:00

Ha. I wish! I wish we had moved!

But really, this blog has moved. It's the end of Kick Your Boots and the beginning of a brand new, grown up blog.

Check me out at braver than you believe. See you there!

Two Dogs and One Cat FOR SALE!

2011-08-19T07:29:00.003-05:00

Ain't that the truth?

Last week, the cat puked on the bed. So at 9:00 at night I had to wash the comforter, sheets and mattress pad. And the comforter is so big it won't fit in the washing machine and I don't want to pay for dry cleaning (this is the THIRD time he has puked on the bed) so I wash it by hand in the bathtub and then hang it up in the shower to dry. Oy. Why must he always throw up on the bed?! He never even sleeps on the bed. He's hardly up there at all. Except when he feels the need to get sick.

Not two days later, we come home and one of the dogs has peed in the hallway, on the carpet. Argggh. We've been leaving the dogs inside every day this summer since it is 107 outside. They are (usually) very good about staying off of all carpet in the house. This has been the rule for years. But I guess when they have to go to the bathroom they just can't go on any of the tile. That would make too much sense. They have to go on the CARPET. Ahhhhh!

THEN. Later that same week, we come home from work and I walk in the house and smell something. Uh oh. I was for real too scared to look. I made Mark walk around the house and find the source of the smell. Yeah. Dog poop, on the carpet, in our bedroom.

The animals are trying to run me out. I keep telling them, "you're lucky you're cute." Or YOU would be out of here!

Sunday Fun Day and Two Special Pups Turn Ten

2011-08-14T11:48:00.007-05:00

I've spent some serious time this morning cleaning out my closet(s) and attempting to clear some space in them so I can actually see my clothes. I have waaaay too much stuff. And not because I shop a lot (although I do kind of shop a lot) but because I am so bad about parting with clothes. I always think I might still wear something, even if I haven't worn in in the past four years. But I did manage to fill up two large shopping bags full of clothes to donate. I sorted out the still nice/not so old/in good condition clothes from the very worn/faded/super out of date stuff, and I'm going to try my hand at some buy-back stores later today. If I walk away with 20 bucks in my pocket, I will be happy!

While I've been digging through closets, Mark did indeed start the retiling project this weekend. We (I mean HE) are ripping out the linoleum in the two bathrooms and laundry room, and today he is going to start laying the tile in the laundry room. So our washer and dryer are currently in the entry way to the house, so I guess I won't have to worry about laundry for a few days!

Today our two labs, Maggie and Jordan, turn TEN years old! We took them swimming at the lake early this morning (before it got TOO hot!), then Mark gave them both baths so they could be fresh and clean for their big day. Still on the agenda for this afternoon is a trip to Petsmart to pick out some new birthday toys, and I think I'll either make them some sort of dog friendly treat (oatmeal cookies?) or else just give them a big scoop of peanut butter tonight.

I don't have too many pictures on my computer right now, but here's a shot of the Birthday Girls and their two cousins (Finn and Stella the German Shepherds) earlier this summer. They are sitting up on hay bales at my parent's house! Happy Birthday Maggie and Jordan! You are seventy years old today. Old Ladies.

Cousin dogs!

Just for fun: Laura, Kristen and me in San Antonio a couple weeks ago.

Where did the summer go, Grad School, and WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT IS ONLY 93 DEGREES OUTSIDE?!

2011-08-11T17:45:00.004-05:00

Life is rushing past at a pretty rapid speed these days. This week is my first full week back at school, which means (gasp!) I have to work tomorrow and I have to stay all the way until 4:00 each day. It's pretty brutal. But my new boss started yesterday, and I think she is going to be a great addition to our team. So with some new changes around school, it feels almost like a whole new job. Which is nice and refreshing.

My grad school classes start in a few weeks, which is also going to be an exciting new change. I'm still meeting every few weeks with the head of our Lower School, who is serving as a mentor to me this year. She is such a great resource and is going to be such a valuable contact for me this next year. I am both excited and nervous-slash-borderline-nauseous at the idea of getting in the classroom sometime soon to teach some real, full day classes. Hooray!

Let's make this a totally random blog post and bounce around a lot, shall we? If you live in Dallas or Texas or anywhere in the entire middle of the country, you know that it's pretty hot outside. And I pretty much hate the heat with a passion larger than life. Well, I do LOVE going to the pool, but otherwise, I'll stay out of the heat thankyouverymuch. Well, I am a bit of a weather bug and like obsessively watch the local news every day to find out what the weather is going to be like each day (see also: Pete Delkus is my old(er) man crush). So I have gotten pretty into this whole When Will We Break the Record Streak of Most 100+ Days In A Row and Overtake the Dreaded Summer of 1980 (for which I was not even alive). And you guys, we are going to tie the record tomorrow and break it on Saturday! I've been watching this countdown play out on the news every morning, evening and night for the past 2 weeks! It is so! exciting! Every seven day forecast since like July 4 has been sure that we'll beat this record and go down in the books as the longest, hottest, most horrible summer in Dallas EVER and I was going to tell my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids that I lived through it.

But then. Out of nowhere. Clouds! We haven't seen clouds around here since May and they just blew in out of nowhere today and bam. We haven't hit 100 degrees yet today and it's not looking good that we'll get there at all. ONE DAY SHY of tying the record. Whahhhhhaat? We've suffered through 109 degree days and we can't even set a record?

Tragic.

Ok. The cat is bugging me to feed him and I've got dinner plans across town, so I'll end this rant for now. But, since you've read this far, I will sneak in a little surprise wedding photo, for no reason at all.

Just before making our big entrance in the Grand Centennial Hall of Lindsay, Texas. Holla!

Snapshots

2011-07-17T21:53:00.004-05:00

Grumble, Grumble

2011-07-15T08:13:00.004-05:00

I'm sitting at home watching the Today show (did you know I don't work Fridays [in the summer?]) feeling blah. Feeling like I should go to the gym. Feeling like I shouldn't have just eaten that monster cookie for breakfast. Thinking I should finish unpacking from our trip a week ago. Thinking the bathroom really needs to be cleaned. Wishing I had a pool to go to today.

Blah.

Also, I was really looking forward to sleeping in nice and late today, but then there were these hot air balloons flying over the backyard and the pups just kept barking and barking and barking. Who is taking a hot air balloon ride over McKinney, Texas at 6:30 AM?! But, I'm awake now. So I guess I'll get ready for the gym. And then unpack. And clean the bathroom...

366 Days Ago

2011-07-11T14:08:00.007-05:00

Watching fireworks in Vail

Well, yesterday was our one year anniversary - holy scnhipeys! when did that happen? We spent pretty much the entire day driving home from Farmington, NM, which ended up taking right at 12 hours. It was the tail end of our summer road trip, during which we spent a week driving up into the mountains where, oh hey, it rains everyday! Everything was great though, and now as I sit here being lazy, I can literally see the piles of laundry that I need to start and then figure out how I am going to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow when my alarm goes off for work, after having spent the past 19 days sleeping in.

It's good to be home though, and I am even strangely looking forward to work tomorrow. I miss my friends up at my school, and our new Head of School officially started on July 1, so it will almost be like going back to a brand new place. Plus, I have no boss. And probably won't until at least August, so that should make for a stress-free work environment, right? I am excited about this school year though. I'm looking forward to starting my grad school classes (still currently "under department review," but whatevs) and getting some time in the classroom when I can. In fact, I am secretly hoping that one of the cute, young, married teachers in 2nd - 4th grade will get pregnant this fall and then I can take over as a long term sub for her classroom in the Spring. That could totally happen. Maybe.

But in the meantime, laundry. And then maybe at dinner tonight, toasting to 366 days ago.

Oh and. Because we like to have weddings every year in my family, check out my beautiful sister's beautiful wedding, which was on July 1, up in Oklahoma City. They had high's in the 104-ish range all week, but a true wedding miracle occurred when a big ol' cloud came out of nowhere and shaded the garden just in time for the ceremony. My ushering Husband was more than happy for a break in the heat as he escorted the guests and grandmas to their seats!

Blogging From the Road

2011-07-08T14:43:00.001-05:00

My first blog post from the road!

Miles driven so far on this little road trip: 1455

McDonald's stops: 5

Awaiting Department Review

2011-06-29T16:10:00.004-05:00

..... every time I check the status of my grad school application, it just says "Awaiting Department Review." Come on department! Review it already!

So I scrambled like crazy last week to take the admissions test, submit my application and get all the necessary documents submitted that I needed to officially apply. Now, how long will this department review take exactly?

Tomorrow we head to Oklahoma City for my sister's wedding. Whoa! That got here fast. We get back Saturday night and then leave for a road trip Sunday morning. So I'm packing for two different trips - one is an outdoor wedding on a day when the high is predicted to be 104 (ahhhh), and the other is a trip to the mountains where it gets down to 43 at night. So yeah. Pretty much everything is going in the suitcase at this point.

Last night we went to the summer concerts series at the Arboretum with some friends. It was 80's night and the Spazmatics were playing, so we decided to bust out some 80's poses ourselves.

So She Did

2011-06-16T07:58:00.002-05:00

It's been decided. I'm going to grad school. Getting my Master's. I just gotta apply and, you know, get in. Yikes.

Things Fall Apart

2011-06-09T07:56:00.008-05:00

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I found this clicking around on pinterest last week and felt like it was the perfect quote for me to find. Especially the last line. Good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

For the past five months, I have been taking the steps to make a career change. I've always known in my heart that I want to teach. And around mid-February, it was like a light bulb went off in my mind that Hello? I totally can. I can get my certification and get a job, possibly at the (super wonderful) school I already work at. I can do this. I don't love my current job. I love my school and I love all the people here, but the asking people for money and bending over backwards for donors day in and day out? I am over it. I'm not the least bit passionate about this field. But I so, so, so want to teach.

So one night over dinner back in March-ish I told Mark my idea. He was on board and more than excited for me to get out of the negative atmosphere of my current position. So I researched a number of teaching certification programs in the area and contacted several of them before deciding on what felt like the best place for me. I met with an adviser at this school, and everything just clicked into place. It felt right. I took the required admission test and officially submitted my application. Classes would start in August and over the next year, I would earn my certification and then apply for a teaching position for the 2012 school year. It was a ways off, but I knew time would fly and I was so excited about getting back to school and taking classes and learning about this new field, that I didn't even mind the long timeline.

My plan was to quietly get my certification while still maintaining my current job. Classes were two evenings a week, which was totally doable. But then a couple months ago, a teaching position opened up at my school for this coming fall and something inside me told me I should apply for it. I knew I could do it, if I could just convince the leaders at my school that I could. So I talked to our HR manager and the teacher who is leaving the position, and they both encouraged me to try for it. I interviewed with the Head of the Lower School, the school Headmaster, and the department head for the position. I got to teach a sample lesson to a class of third graders and had so. much. fun. The entire process reaffirmed even more that this is 100% what I want to do.

In the end, I didn't get the job. I have zero true-life experience, and I knew it was a long-shot. But, by going out on a limb and applying for the position, I spilled the beans to my current boss, the head of the Lower School, and our Headmaster that I want to switch jobs. Which turned out to be the best thing possible. The Lower School Head loved how I taught and came to me afterwards to tell me that she wants to work with me for the next year, while I am taking my certification classes, to get me in a teaching position at our school for next fall. She talked to my boss and we're going to work it out so that I can sub in several classes during the year, shadow and observe teachers, and take professional development classes and trainings through the school. I'll be meeting weekly with the LS Head and she will serve as my mentor while I transition to this new career. I couldn't be in a more perfect position to achieve my goal.

But then. Then things fell apart. A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the director of the program where I applied for my certification classes. I thought for sure that she was calling to tell me I had been accepted into the school. However, she was instead calling to tell me that the school they were affiliated with decided to completely eliminate the teaching certification program, and could I please come pick up my application packet. No explanation. No apology for completely throwing the biggest wrench into my plan.

So I'm back to the drawing board, looking for a new place to take classes. The problem I am running in to is that pretty much all of the other programs in the area are designed to get you in and out in 6-8 weeks and get you into the classroom by August. This is not what I want to do. I never wanted to rush through the process of learning "how to be a teacher." I enjoy being in school and I want to feel completely prepared when I have a classroom of my own. Plus, our Lower School Head flat out told me she doesn't hire candidates who go through these kinds of programs. She would rather I find a slower-paced program that gives you more opportunities to shadow current teachers and take classes that last an entire semester, rather than two weeks.

Thus, good things fall apart. I'm on the hunt for the better things now.

Summer Cleaning

2011-06-08T20:11:00.002-05:00

Trying out a new look to the blog! What do you think?

Also, today we went to Best Buy and bought a $1,200 tripod. Or rather, we spent $1,200 and walked out with a tripod. But. We've got something exciting to pickup on Sunday. And it just might go along with the tripod..... ;)

Family Vacays

2011-05-20T08:34:00.004-05:00

Growing up, we camped. A LOT. This is how I felt every time we got home from a two week trip with the entire family crammed in a minivan and the pop-up camper behind us.

By the time I was a teenager, I was the kid in the family that openly boycotted camping and made sure everyone knew how much I was NOT enjoying myself. Don't tell my dad, but I secretly kind of miss it now.

Enjoy your weekend my friends.

All Work... and Some Play

2011-05-18T13:57:00.007-05:00

Operation: Get the House Ready to Sell is well under way up in McKinney. We bought a new fridge about a month ago, which quickly gave our kitchen a whole new look. I was thinking that we would for sure have to put in new counter tops, but really, once that big, beautiful, shiny new fridge showed up, I don't even notice the laminate counters anymore! Next up on the To Do List was paint the exterior of the house. This was a chore I was more than happy to let Mark take over.

I took this picture while lounging on a lawn chair, sipping a cold drink and pretending I was sitting by the pool. And watching the painting occur. It was brutal, let me tell ya.

But it's not all work for the hubs. Don't feel too sorry for him. The very next day he was looking like this, as we were walking up to an actual pool.

The margaritas tasted good :)

On the Horizon

2011-05-17T19:19:00.002-05:00

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There's a lot out on the horizon for hubs and me. And it's not kids, yet. I think every time someone alludes to a change coming up in their life, everyone is always like omgareyoupregnant?! So, just to get it out there, no.

We have an official plan for selling the house. We know which neighborhood we want to move to. We're open to renting a small apartment until the perfect house in the perfect place is available. I want to change careers. Get a new job. And I have a plan for that too. I'm going back to school this August. Mark and I are just two months shy of our one year anniversary. We're taking a road trip to celebrate and hopefully 2,000 miles in the car won't kill us ;)

It's been a rough, hectic, crazy, busy couple of months for us. I feel like I'm always tired, always eating bad, always wasting the evening away laying on the couch. The winter was cold and lazy and long. But I feel like we have good things ahead of us, and I'm ready for them.

Confession

2011-03-22T13:04:00.001-05:00

I gave up cokes for Lent (as in all kinds of cokes) and have been doing so, so good. Better than I have ever done on any Lent, ever (and it's only been, like, one and a half weeks of lent. So that should tell you how poorly I usually do). And I know it might not seem like giving up sodas is not that good of a thing to do, since a) how hard can it be? and b) isn't that something that's good for me (sodas = bad) and not a true "sacrifice"?

but you guys. I am addicted to cokes. for real. I drink one every morning at work, first thing. I walk in the door, put my purse down, turn on my computer, and head straight to the fridge for a diet dr. pepper (my drug of choice). I typically have another one mid-morning, often down another one with lunch and *sometimes* even have one in the afternoon. that's FOUR diet dr. peppers before I even leave for home at 4:00.

Eek.

So I quit cold turkey for Lent. I figured for sure I'd have caffeine headaches and withdraws on the wazoo, but really, it hasn't been all that hard. although, when the other girls in my office walk to their desks with one, I immediately have the craving. As soon as I hear the sound of the can when they set it down... it's like a bell goes off: I need a DDP! (yes, it's bad, this addiction.)

But, I've been doing really good. No DDP's at work since Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Until just now. Really, I have the munchies. Have I told you about the snack drawer at work? It's more of an actual filing cabinet than just a drawer. Four whole drawers, filled with snacks. Just there for the taking. Totally free. Cheez-it's, goldfish, nuts, cookies, pretzels, granola bars, candy, candy, and more candy, chips, fruit snacks. You name it, it's in the snack drawers. So really, I want to dive into a drawer and eat my way out. But instead, I keep thinking how a DDP would do the job just fine, sans all the calories.

So I did it. I am drinking a coke. I confessed to all my coworkers, because now I am feeling the Catholic guilt. But it is good. Sooo good.

48 Hours

2011-03-10T14:02:00.002-06:00

Until I land in this place to visit this girl!

It can't come soon enough.

Just now at work, I had to call the Fancy Schmancy Club where we are having a retirement reception next month and tell them the $35,000 quote they gave me needs to be more in the $8,000 range, per my boss. There was a moment of silence on the other end. She thinks I'm crazy. And for what I'm asking, I think she might be right. If they can't come down to our budget, we have to change locations. For an event that is NEXT MONTH. And for which the invitations are all printed up and sitting in a box next to me, waiting to be mailed today.

I'm keeping my eye on the prize. Miami. Beach. Tan. Pool drinks.

Recently.

2011-02-24T13:05:00.002-06:00

Oh, hi blog. I'm not even going to apologize about/explain why I've (once again) gone missing. Let's just get on with it.

* A student at my school passed away unexpectedly a week ago. We have been grieving/celebrating the life of this sweet little girl - wearing pink in her honor, sending balloons with prayers to her up in heaven, and standing in a circle to sing Amazing Grace. Her name was Grace. She was six years old.

* I have been heavily considering a pretty major life change lately. It is not having a baby.

* This weekend I am taking a road trip with my college girls to visit this lady in Lufkin. Five girlfriends. Small town, East Texas. I think it will be a nice escape and will hopefully involve some quality BFF time and catching up on our oh-so-spread-out lives.

* Hubs turns 30 in one month. What do I get him?! He wants nothing, of course. Or, he wants an iPad but doesn't think we should spend the money on it. I keep telling him you only turn 30 once! We have plans to celebrate with his friends in Tulsa and with our Dallas friends at.. wait for it.. Medieval Times.

* I am jetting off to Miami in sixteen short days. I hope I come back with a tan!

*Over Super Bowl weekend, I worked for a friend's catering company at a swanky party for the stars. Yours truly passed cocktails to Justin Timberlake, Ashton Kuthcher, Demi Moore, Hugh Jackman, Matthew Morrison, Erin Andrews, Marissa Miller, Chase Crawford and Tony Romo. I was Star. Struck. Although I didn't exactly envision meeting JT while wearing a black tie. Oh well.

Half Anniversary

2011-01-11T18:19:00.007-06:00

Six months (and one day) ago, Hubs and I got married. Seemed like a good enough reason to post some wedding photos! I'll start out with some pre-wedding pics today, and then add some more later this week. Enjoy :)

The girls got to the church first, and staked out our area.

With the help of my entourage, I put my dress on (in front of a small crowd of people). What you can't see in this picture, is the attractive pair of spanx I was wearing. Hello, wedding night!

Mark had his brother deliver a gift up to the girls' room before the ceremony. It was a beautiful engraved jewelry box filled with all these little cards on which Mark had written out reasons he loved me (le sigh). Well, I didn't go down through them all and packed it away to look at later. Cue to us up on the alter during the mass, and Mark leans over and whispers to ask if I looked at the bottom of the box. I was like yes, I looked all the way through them! And he was like, no I don't think you did. Turns out there was a diamond necklace at the bottom of the jewelry box that i totally missed! He thought maybe I didn't like it, since I wasn't wearing it during the wedding. Psh! What's not to love about diamonds?!

My girls hung out during the prepping.

It rained (for the first time in MONTHS) all morning on wedding day. I had a lady come to my parents' house and curl my hair before we went to the church, but the humidity and weather took a toll on it. So my friend (who anchors the news in Kansas City and has the best hairspray EVER) re-curled it all before everything got started!

Meanwhile, the boys arrived and were hanging out in the church. I sent my gift to Mark down to them, which was this collage of pictures, tickets, receipts, emails, etc. from our time dating (yes, i save pretty much every. single. thing)

I also gifted Hubs these snazzy new shades, just in time for our beach honeymoon.

As go-time got closer, some b-maids checked out the crowd in the church. The "bride's room" was actually the old choir loft up in the back upstairs of the church, so we had a good ariel view of guests arriving and filling the pews.

Our little ring bearer got some last minute pointers from his Mom...

And Mark hung out with Jesus, while holding some flowers.

Mark's little cousins passed out the programs...

I came down to take my place...

And Dad and I got ready to go!

Four friends and a polar bear walk into a bar....

2011-01-10T15:25:00.002-06:00

Lazy {Snow} Day

2011-01-09T17:49:00.002-06:00

Up here in the burbs, we are getting some pretty decent snow today! We have about 4 inches stacked up on the fence and back patio chairs, and the entire yard and streets are covered in perfect white. Seeing as how this happens only about once a year, I've got the blinds on every window pulled up so we can watch it fall. It would be really nice if it all stuck around tonight and froze before the morning so I can get a day off, but I'm not counting on it. It seems as if down closer to Dallas there is virtually nothing on the ground, so my school's probably just fine. Oh well.

So I'm down two pounds this week! I was really excited to see that my week of eating well and working out did in fact make a difference. I am all set to keep with it this week, although I'm afraid I might have regained those two little pounds last night. We went out with some friends and drank wine, ate Italian food, and snacked on M&M's. I [reluctantly] calculated all the points I consumed this morning and will have to be better this week to make up for it. Some trips to the gym are in order!

We took the Christmas decorations down today and everything is boxed up in the attic..... except for the tree itself. It might stand around for another week or so, but at least some good progress was made today. We've got chili in the crock pot and football on TV. A perfect, snowy Sunday.

Clogging up the Treadmills Every January

2011-01-07T13:43:00.005-06:00

I went to the gym (wait for it).... 3 days in a row! I would have gone last night to make it 4, but I didn't get home until after 7:00 and was just too tired. So I watched two episodes of I Used to Be Fat instead. That's almost like going to the gym, right?

Back in the day, I was a fairly frequent gym attender. I went to classes several times per week and would get totally annoyed in January when suddenly there were three times as many people in them. And now, I am that annoying person. I am a Gym Resolutioner. On Wednesday I went to the pilates class at my gym. I have never in my life been to a class at this gym, since I've only belonged there since moving after getting married and, let's be honest, I've been like twelve times total since then and have stuck to the machines. So the pilates class starts at 6:30 and the website says to come early, especially if you are new to the class. So I show up at about 6:15 and wander down the hall to the assigned room and sit outside the door. There is one older guy (like in his 50's older) waiting too. 6:27 rolls around and I start to get nervous that I am in the wrong room because Where are all the other Gym Resolutioners?! 6:35ish, the instructor shows up and opens the door. There are a whopping four of us in the class, and I am the lone Resolutioner. As in the only new kid in the class. The other 3 people are all at least 20 years older then me, and obvi come every week because they were all comparing their weeks and asking about one of the lady's son's wedding in Connecticut over the weekend. At this point I totally want to bail but can't because I am the lone New Kid, who is clearly here to kick off her New Year Resolution and I can't just walk about like I got scared or something. So I go though an hour of the slowest pilates class ever. I guess they tone it down for the 50+ crowd around here. But I am a little sore today, so it must have done some good.

Today there was this big huge strawberry cake at work for all the January birthdays. I had a (rather large) piece and I'm not even feeling guilty. It was soooo good. But, I might have to hit up another Senior Pilates class this weekend.

Yesterday after work I did some shopping (hence not making it to the gym) and OMGyouguys. I found some awesome sales. Like at [my number one favorite store ever] Loft, I found this precious black dress for $19.99. But it was 40% off all sale, so it rang up for $11.88. The girl checking me out had to double check the price on another register because she didn't believe it was ringing up correctly. I think it was regularly $98. I tried to find a picture online of the dress, but it must be sold out online. It's a cute little black dress with these poufs on the sleeves, which I realize sounds very 80's but really it is just adorbs. I think it will be making some appearances this summer when I'm sporting a tan and attending fancy parties (that will happen, right?).

I know it's only January 7 and it isn't even that late yet, but we still have ALL the Christmas decorations up (tree included) at our house. I have zero motivation to take it all down. The tree is in the front living room, which we never even go into, so it's not like it's really staring me in the face every day saying "put me back in the attic..." The stockings are even still hanging on the mantle. Bleh. Decorating for the holidays, I'm all about. Putting it all away, not so much. Will someone just come do it for me? I'll pay you in Lean Cuisines and low-cal popcorn. I seem to have a lot of it in the pantry these days.

Happy weekend, my friends. My first weigh-in since starting WW is tomorrow. Let's hope I'm down at least one measly pound!

Eleven in Eleven

2011-01-04T14:13:00.005-06:00

There’s nothing quite like the prospect of a brand new, squeaky clean, untouched year to give you the chance to improve things in and around you. New Year’s Resolutions may be a bit cheesy, but I am taking them on in full-force this year, and I really feel like this is a great time to make some changes for the better. I feel like the first half of 2010 was consumed with the wedding, so much so that every day I was thinking/doing/stressing about something to do with it. Then post-wedding, there was such a relief in getting to live a “normal” life again (in the same house as a boy!) that I got really, really lazy. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun. But many of the things that used to be important to me (being healthy, participating in activities other than snuggling on the couch with the hubs watching TV all evening) started to take the back burner. Mark and I have both been really looking forward to 2011 over the past couple of [crazy holiday] weeks. We are both really ready for a fresh start. So I sat down and came up with not one, not two, but eleven resolutions for this year. They aren’t really things I can suddenly complete and check off my list in one day. They are tasks I want to take on for the long run, so that this year can be a great one.

So without further ado, my Eleven Resolutions for 2011!

1. Establish Date Night. January 10^th will be our 6 month anniversary and I think it’s time we start consciously taking some time away from our usual after-work routine to do something fun each month, on the tenth. Does not have to include eating out somewhere. Could be taking the pups to the Dog Park or hitting up the Red Box for a movie on the couch. Rain checks are allowed, if the tenth gets booked up, as long as Date Night is celebrated each and every month.

2. Drop some LB’s/Get in Shape. See yesterday’s post. No more stuffing my face with chips when I’m bored. More gym time (last night was my first time this year!). Stick with WW so that my pants can once again button painlessly. Start adding in weight training. See how many pushups I can do over time.

3. Complete an Official Race That Actually Requires Registering. As in don’t just run 3.14 miles on the treadmill one night and call it a 5K. Sign up for and finish at least three 5K races in 2011. Train for and complete one longer race… perhaps a 10K. Maybe, just maybe, a half-marathon.

4. Cook Dinner/Try New Recipes /Be Wifely. Mark and I have really slipped into a do-it-yourself dinner mentality. He makes himself a PB sandwich, I microwave whatever’s around and we eat our separate meals together. It’s a rare occasion when one of us prepares a meal and we actually eat the same thing at the same time. Between our wedding and now Christmas, we must have about 6 new cookbooks to start testing out. Prepare a meal at home at least twice a week.

5. Officially Become a United Mr. and Mrs. Not long after the wedding I stood in the respective lines and got my name legally changed on my social security card and driver’s license. Then I quit becoming Amanda NewLastName. Call credit card companies and request new cards with new name. Set up a date at the bank and merge my account with his so we can become a joint-operating couple. No more whose turn is it to pay? Add my name to the house and his car. Add his name to my car and the cat ;)

6. Send Birthday Cards. I love when far away friends remember my birthday and send a card. I always want to be that friend, but without fail forget to get a card until it’s too late to even be belated. Get organized this year and get those cards in the mail!

7. Dress Cute More Often. This doesn’t mean go out and buy a lot of new clothes (I wish), but rather think about my appearance for the regular days and not just the going-somewhere-special days. I tend to throw on a pair of black/gray/tan pants for work every day with some sort of sweater/cardigan combo and the exact same pair of shoes. If I’m feeling extra fancy, I’ll add a necklace. I want to feel good about myself every day, which can be as simple as looking in my closet and piecing some new outfits together or wearing my hair in some way other than straightened with a headband. I read so many fun magazines and follow so many great fashion blogs (like here, here, here and here), I have plenty of inspiration. It’s time to start putting some of it to good use!

8. Change of Attitude. I tend to complain. A lot. I know it’s a fault (likely my biggest one). I often resolve to look on the brighter side of things, and this year is no different. No more whining about my commute, my job, my boss, my friends, my family, the dogs, the cat, the weather, the food, the alarm clock, the gym, etc. etc. You get the point. Make an effort to be more cheery on a more regular basis.

9. Attend Church Regularly. As in every Sunday. In a row.

10. Read. This isn’t something that I thought would ever pop up on my resolution list, seeing as how I typically read all the time. But married life changes things and I’m finding myself with less and less time to curl up with a good book. I’ve thought of all kinds of book lists I’d like to tackle this year. Like all of Jane Eyre. Or all the Harry Potter books (again). Or half my “To Read” list on Goodreads. Either way, make the time to read more. I miss it.

11. Do Something Nice for Mark Every Day. Show him some love and appreciation for all he does for me whenever possible. Cook dinner, fill up the car with gas, give him a backrub, tell him thank you, write him a little note, give him an extra kiss goodnight, tell him he looks cute, fold his laundry, vacuum the floor, bring him a DP. Things I do a lot, but not often enough. No gesture is too small! I’m lucky to have the Hubs and want him to know I feel that way every day.

I know we are only four days into the New Year, but I’m feeling good about some positive change this year! What are you resolving to do differently in Eleven?

Cliche

2011-01-03T10:42:00.004-06:00

I joined Weight Watchers on January1.

It's probably their most popular sign-up day ever and I decided to jump on the Resolution Bandwagon as well. I am really wanting some extra motivation in 2011 to drop some of these LB's I've gained since this summer and I think WW could help me out again. Today was my first day back at work since before the holidays and let's just say that I had to try 3 different pairs of black pants before I found a pair that weren't a little too snug! I did Weight Watchers before my wedding and had a decent amount of success, and this time around I'm hoping for an even better experience. I'll do my weigh in's on Monday, so check back... I just might share my results :)

The Hubs is looking to lose weight with me, although he's not using WW. But I think with both of us in this new mindset together, we'll push each other to go to the gym after work, cook at home instead of grabbing fast food, and altogether be healthier each day. We are both a little softer on the edges since the wedding (maybe even the softest since we've known each other!) and are looking to slim down and tone up in '11. I don't know why, but I really feel like we're going to do well this time around. We always say we'll start a diet on Monday, quit eating so much crap tomorrow, blah, blah, blah. But I think we are really ready to do this and do it right. Call it the New Year or call it none-of-my-jeans-fit-so-what-am-I-supposed-to-wear. I'm almost excited to start hitting up the gym and steaming some veggies!

Happy New Year my friends!

A Trip to Colorado

2010-11-01T13:49:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago, we jumped a plane and flew out to visit Mark's brother in New Mexico. We spent one night of the trip in Durango, Colorado, where I drank a few too many mojitios. But that's another story for another day. Even though it wasn't exactly cold, the fresh mountain air did us some good (or some bad, if you factor in how the altitude makes it that much harder to breathe/consume alcohol). Nothing that a McDonald's hamburger around noon the next day couldn't fix!

OCD

2010-10-27T09:54:00.006-05:00

My in-laws are visiting this weekend, so we've been working on the house and getting things cleaned up every evening after work. Mark has been painting the guest bathroom, replacing the hardware, mowing the lawn and even doing the laundry (I got Husband of the Year on my hands, friends.) Me on the other hand, I'm doing this, which is obviously a very important activity:

Before:

After:
Color coordinating my book shelf of course! A top priority. But I am pretty proud of our guest room, which is ready and waiting for ANY guests that come our way (hint, hint). I snagged a new coverlet at TJ Max this weekend and I feel like it really completed the room.

And a great big Hello to everyone who is still reading, since I've been missing for quite some time now :)

Friday Friends to Follow

2010-10-01T07:30:00.007-05:00

Friday! Finally. And hey there October, didn't expect to see you so soon!

In honor of us being a mere eight hours from the weekend, here are two of my favorite friends' blogs to go check out today!

Everyone go check out Mia-mi Likee and follow MB as she posts speedo spottings and drug deals in her new home of Miami!

And then go check out KD of Present Considered for all things gifty, homey and booky. She'll keep your apartment dressed in its best, your friends' birthday gifts at the top of the list, and your bookshelves well stocked with the latest (often depressing) read.

(and how cute is her cat Maurice when he sleeps?! Gus is a fan).

Happy weekend to all. Hook 'em horns :)

Oh, hi.

2010-09-27T12:01:00.003-05:00

Hey there Internets. It's me, Amanda. The bad blogger.

I have all kinds of things to write about, including our fabulous wedding pictures that we recently got back from our photographer. But it seems a little overwhelming to start recapping the wedding, so I've been avoiding it. So I figured why not get back in the swing of things with my oh so (not) favorite topic........ weight.

So we got this super cool electronic scale as a wedding gift (what kind of crazy would buy someone a scale as a wedding gift, you ask? well.. we actually registered for this. so I guess we are the crazies!) Mark stepped on it a few weeks ago and even announced to me last week that he's already lost 4 pounds of post-wedding-weight-gain. I, on the other hand, have been avoiding that scale like the plague. It sits on our bathroom floor, taunting me every day and just begging me to step on it with its cool digital screen and weight accuracy right down to the tenth of a pound and handy-dandy recording feature to remind you how much you weighed last time you stepped on it. No thank you Fancy Scale, I'd rather not know how many LB's I've gained in the 2+ months since the wedding, during which time my food pyramid has consisted pretty heavily of french fries and skittles.

Well I bit the bullet this past week and now have been stepping on Fancy Scale every morning (after peeing, of course). The number today (post El Chico for dinner last night and Chick-fil-a for lunch on Saturday) was a good solid ten pounds higher than the number I fill in on medical forms and at the DMV. Sigh. No wonder my pants all feel tighter and those cute green shorts I wore on the honeymoon don't even zip up anymore.

So today I start over. Get back on track. Quit eating crap every day. Visit the gym more than once every other week. I am going to loosely follow weight watchers and see where it gets me this week. And by loosely I mean I'm not paying to sign up, but instead keeping track of it all myself, on little post-it notes all over my desk and purse. Because I've paid for it for months and months before and that cute little web page with all the bells and whistles just doesn't keep me committed. My too-tight green shorts are keeping me committed this time!

I'm telling you this, dear Internet friends, to help me stay accountable. In the spirit of "if you write something down you'll stick to it" (shout out, Oprah), I'm hoping this will get me back into my non-fat jeans by the holidays. Anyone else out there have any Stick With It tips, for WW or otherwise?

Thanks for listening... I'm off to eat my Lean Cuisine.

Next up.. much more exciting posts with pretty wedding pictures :)

A Pug In a Peacoat

2010-09-09T11:29:00.003-05:00

Umm... this could be the cutest thing I've seen in a long time! Or how about this little guy in his trench coat?

RoverDog

Must get small puppy, asap. Oh wait, I already have two labs who have taken to eating out of the cat box. Scratch that.

Oh hey there, Radar

2010-09-08T11:53:00.004-05:00

Just trying to stay afloat here at the Kick Yer Boots HQ, thanks to Ms. Hermine. I really wanted to run errands at lunch, but instead we are calling in the troops to deliver lunch. Start building the ark!

PWC and Shade 4 Hair

2010-09-03T08:56:00.005-05:00

Post-wedding chop.

For the past seventeen months, I have been growing out my hair. I've gotten probably 3 real haircuts during this time, all of which were just trims to try and keep some sort of semblance to the loooong hair. I like my long hair, really I do, but the washing and the drying and the straightening and the constant tangley mess that it turns into every single day was really wearing me out. So I did what I always do when I get to this point in any hair-growing-out journey. I frantically called any and every salon I can find until I can find someone who can get me in today for a haircut right now.

I decided I might as well find a salon in McKinney, so I can have a hair place near home. So I goggled around and narrowed my choices down to two salons, based purely on how nice their websites were. (side note: the one I didn't chose was Tangerine Salon in Allen, which is offering $75 worth of services for $35 in today's Groupon. I kinda sorta totally want to buy it for next time!). I ended up calling the one with the lower price list, and setup an appointment for the following afternoon. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go significantly shorter (maybe shoulder length?) or just cut off a couple inches and do some serious hair maintenance, so I figured I would just wing it when I sat in the chair.

Which is pretty much exactly what I did. My stylist was Brandon, the probably-gay-just-moved-down-to-Texas-from-Beverly-Hills-and-claims-to-know-all-the-trends guy with the slightly messy, almost faux hawk hair cut. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I sort of mumbled that I liked it long but wanted it shorter and wanted some shape to it without too many layers all over the place. What does that even mean? I don't know. But Brandon knew. We went to wash my hair and while I was in the chair, another girl who had just gotten her hair colored came over and asked him what he thought of her new highlights. He point blank told her he didn't like them! He was like "you did too much on top and I liked it better before." Ouch.

So we make our way back to the chair and he combs mine out and starts chopping. We decided he'd take about 2 inches off, but other than that I pretty much let him do whatever. He asked me if I wanted a "Brazilian Triangle" cut, which I guess is all the rage in California but only girls with long hair can do it. I told him to make me a subtle version of it, so my hair now makes a subtle triangle shape in the back. (??) He styled it by drying it in tiny sections with a round brush, and I wish I could explain how he did it. After drying each piece, he would unwind the hair off the brush by flinging it and twisting it in the air so it fell kind of backwards and landed with a slight curve. It was pretty fancy!

Oh and Brandon also told me that I have Shade 4 brown hair, which is apparently the very best shade to have and all the girls who want to grow brunette ask for shade 4. Shade 3 is to mousey and shade 5 is too dark. Conveniently, Brandon also has shade 4 hair, so we are now BFFs forever. He made me promise I wouldn't color my hair until I absolutely have to, which hello I wasn't doing anyway. Hair coloring is too pricey for this girls budget!

So anyways! Here's how the haircut came out. I wish I had better pictures to show. In fact, I'm slightly embarrassed to even put these up. The before pic was taken at work with my phone just before I left for the salon. The pic is blurry, I look angry and my hair looks gross. The after was also taken with the phone, but in the car at the gas station while Mark was pumping gas. And I look startled in it. I wish I had a back picture so you could all see the triangle (?) but that will have to be another day.

And that, my friends, is the post wedding chop. Not a chop so much, but boy does a little shape go a long way!

i {heart} etsy.

2010-09-01T07:23:00.003-05:00

It's no secret that I used etsy A LOT for my wedding. I found so many fantastic little details from vendors on etsy and I loved having those touches scattered around that day. So how excited was I when one of these awesome vendors blogged about my wedding last week!?

Grace Hester Designs etsy shop has so many great prints available for purchase. I ordered her Wedding Keepsake Print and used it as a guest book alternative at the reception. We had it framed in an oversize photo mat, and then had guests sign the mat. Now it hangs in the hallway outside of our bedroom and pretty much looks fabulous! I took pictures of it last night to post on here, but apparently my camera cord got lost in the move, so until that shows up, you'll just have to imagine it hanging at home!

Head over to Grace's blog to see it in action at the wedding! Thank you Grace for such a special keepsake from our wedding. Oh and, she shipped the print with some A. Door. A. Bull notecards with both my maiden name and married name, which was a pretty fun surprise!

thank goodness this week is over because i am sooo ready to get out of the office!

2010-08-27T15:44:00.006-05:00

Fifteen minutes away from the weekend! I have big plans in store for me - Tonight is a slumber party in Southlake and tomorrow I'm going to the always-classy, must-not-be-missed Hurricane Harbor with some girlfriends. (!!) I haven't been since high school, and who knows what's in store for us. After a day on the water slides, Mark and I are heading up to Muenster for dinner and some quality R&R with the parents and sisters. Can't wait to see these two ladies... and for the first time in a long time, we won't have to talk about/think about/work on the wedding!

Cheers and Happy Weekend to everyone!

Are you there Fall? It's me, Amanda

2010-08-25T13:02:00.005-05:00

This weather has me itching for cold mornings and long jackets. It's almost 80 degrees outside, but the temperature drop and overcast day is enough of a tease to start surfing the web for new fall clothes.

We are going to visit Mark's brother in October and will spend a day in Durango, Colorado. I can't wait for the cooler climate and mountain views! While chatting about our fall wardrobe staples at work this morning, my coworkers turned me on to a new boot I have decided I MUST have for our trip: wellies!

Can't you just see me trekking through the mountains in a pair of these Hunter Wellies? Le sigh. Or, I can rock them Mary Kate style (or is this Ashley?) and run around town with my shades and fleece. It get's cold/wet enough in Dallas to justify a pair of these, right?

Must Have

2010-08-24T07:34:00.005-05:00

Swoon. I am in love with this turquoise kitchen hutch. Please, please let no one buy it until I can convince the hubs that this is exactly what our kitchen needs. Can't you just see the bright red mixer perched there on its counter top?

And how about this little gem in the front entry way? Yes, I think I must have it.

work, work, work, work, work, work.....

2010-08-19T16:03:00.003-05:00

Just a quick little post to let you know I am still alive and kicking. Work is especially busy this week, so there's little time for anything else. It's wearing me out, but the end is in sight.

Happy (almost) weekend to all!

Coming up: Never before seen photo booth pics!

Got 18 minutes to spare?

2010-08-07T22:11:00.003-05:00

We played this (amazing) slideshow at our Rehearsal Dinner on the night before the wedding. Like so many of our awesome wedding details, this one is credited to Mary Beth. If you find yourself wanting to skip ahead, I show up at about the 4:30 minute mark, and me and Mark come in together around 9:40.

Rehearsal Dinner Slideshow from Amanda on Vimeo.

This could really be a good life.

Little Moments

2010-08-03T18:53:00.003-05:00

Mark's cousin sent this picture of us during our first dance. She spruced it up using Picnik. As cheesy as it is, I'm not ashamed to say it's now my desktop background :)

I wish we could do it all again.

Facebook Much?

2010-08-01T18:27:00.006-05:00

The day after the wedding, I logged into my email to check in before we left the next day for our honeymoon. And I thought I got a lot of FB posts on my birthday... check this out.

(click to make bigger... this is impossible to read!)

Leave it to Facebook to make me feel extra-loved :)

The always-fun Mary Beth has been staying over all weekend. It's a slumber party straight out of sixth grade. We busted out the KitchenAid for its maiden voyage and made a cake that tastes more like a crepe (I'm still working on perfecting my kitchen skills). The best part is that MB has helped us unpack and get things settled at home. She took on the piles of boxes I have been ignoring for months, and forced me to give all kinds of stuff to Good Will/the trash can (what do you mean I can't keep this planner from 2005-2006?!). It's been a good weekend. I'll have to post some before and after pics soon!

Post Bride Diet

2010-07-28T13:32:00.003-05:00

Here's how my day has gone so far today:

Wake up, shower, get dressed, eat a big ol' bowl of Cheerios with some strawberries

Drive into work with Mark. Arrive an hour early, so swing by the McD's drive thru for a large Diet Dr. Pepper

Get to work. Someone brought bagels. Eat 1/2 plain bagel and 1/2 chocolate chip bagel.

Around 9ish, stroll into the break room. Oh what's this? Chocolate chip cookies? Don't mind if I do. Eat one.

11ish, grab a 100 calorie bag of shortbread cookies. It's only 100 calories, right? Hmm. I might grab this bag of Chex Mix too. And what the heck, another Diet DP as well.

Noon. There's lunch provided during that training meeting? Awesome. Get a scoop each of pasta salad, potato salad and cole slaw. Grab a bag of chips and one mini brownie.

OMG. This potato salad is fab. Add another scoop to my plate.

Head back to the food.. more potato and pasta salad. Have another Diet Coke while I'm at it.

True story. This day is only half way over too. Who knows what else I'll stuff my face with? One thing that past two weeks has not included is any trips to the gym, strolls with the dog or even long walks to the car (parking in a garage that is attached to your house officially ROCKS).

I'm not really looking forward to trying on my jeans in a couple months. Eh.

The Real World

2010-07-22T09:39:00.005-05:00

I can't believe the wedding is over. In the past. No longer looming in front of me, x days away. In fact, it was 12 days ago. How did that happen?? I'm back at work now, and want to write up some updates on how things went. So that's in the works.

In the meantime, here are some of the amazing portraits Mary Beth took of me during the week before the wedding. We took these on July 4, at the spot where Mark proposed in McKinney. I had had a pretty rough morning, as my mom was in her The-Wedding-Is-One-Week-Away-So-Let's-Freak-Out mode, but we sucked it up, put on some make-up and went trekking around the golf course and surrounding areas. I think the came out perfectly.

Too Good Not to Share

2010-06-28T21:29:00.002-05:00

I got a fun little package in the mail today from Heather Is Crafty, a pretty fantastic Etsy seller. She made us 1,000 adorable little buttons to pass out at the reception. I am sooo oooooo excited for these!

Cameo by the e-ring :)

My Last Monday at Work as a Single Gal

2010-06-28T13:21:00.004-05:00

wooooooooo! That's the thought that got me out of bed when the alarm went off this A.M.

And how precious is this? If I had about 28 more little girls in my family, I would totally rock this. Adorable.

From Southern Weddings. One of my favs.

Happy Monday to all!

Sunday Sevens

2010-06-26T21:51:00.003-05:00

1. We have a first dance song. Finally.

2. My dad wants to dance to three songs for the Father Daughter Dance. So now I am trying to splice these three together. It reminds me of my drill team days... splicing songs.

3. Did you know there is a new Baby Sitter Club book?!? It just came out in April and it's a prequel to the series. O. M. Geeeee. I will have to grab this one.

4. Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays. Who knew? Guess I'm heading to Michael's today!

5. I ate four bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios yesterday.

6. In four days, we'll be able to officially check the weather for the wedding day. I don't think I'll even bother.. I'm pretty sure it's going to be HOT.

7. I'm off to Mark's office for the afternoon. He's working, so I figured I'd keep him company and work on programs from there!

Happy end of the weekend!

Details, Details, Details...

2010-06-23T17:49:00.003-05:00

I just got back from Hobby Lobby (yes, again) where all their frames were half off! Woo! So I grabbed me a bunch and set out to make some little signs to set out at the wedding. Remember where I was self-teaching myself Adobe Illustrator? Well I finally figured out how to add some text and then how to save a file as a PDF, so I'm in business now. I'll just sneak some of these out on the office printer tomorrow and we'll be in business!

This sign will be for our favors. Which just might be my most favorite part of the wedding. I used the template my sister made for the invitations, so everything matches. Imagine that! It's like I do this stuff on purpose or something...

Hi Internets! wave

2010-06-22T18:32:00.002-05:00

Well.. I'm back. For now, at least. The wedding is a mere 18 days away. Whoa. I can't believe our countdown is a) in the double digits, much less b) starting with the number one. (!!) I go from being beyond excited that It's here!! to being sick to my stomach that.... ohmygosh. people are going to come. what if they don't have a good time?! One thing's for sure. I know I am ready to marry this boy and start this new life together.

With the countdown dropping and my To Do List staring me in the face, I find myself trying to speed-learn adobe illustrator, bargain with Mark to add one more detail, tie a bow that doesn't look limp and lifeless and finally read the fine print on all our vendor contracts (what do you mean we can't bring our own chairs to the reception site?! [mini heart attack follows.]) I am putting out fires with some wacky small-town church ladies, making the trip to Hobby Lobby for the 14th time this week and waking up in the middle of the night thinking "what if the piano player doesn't know our version of this-and-that song?!?"

The closer it gets, the more surreal it feels. I'm used to going to other people's weddings. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like to be my wedding. Will everything get done between now and then? Probably not. But that's okay. Because even if every pew doesn't have a pomander on it, or if every table doesn't have a candle on it, or if every person doesn't leave with a program, at the end of the day, I'll still get to be a wife. A wife. Wow.

I Love the Smell of Fresh Ink in the Morning

2010-05-12T14:21:00.003-05:00

The invitations are done! And they look so good! They are at Kinko's as we speak, where I am praying the nineteen year old kid wearing the polo behind and working the desk really did understand everything I explained to him about how to cut them. In two hours time, we should know.

Fingers crossed.

Kate, why do I love you so?

2010-03-23T13:29:00.001-05:00

I'm on the quest for wedding dress shoes and, sadly, the only ones I am really liking are Kate Spade. I refuse to spend $300 on a pair of shoes I know I will likely wear only once (I just don't really need white heels). Where oh where can I get me some knockoff's or bargain Kates?!

sigh. double sigh.

Someone Shot the Cat

2010-03-19T13:59:00.001-05:00

I heart him.

What I'm Eating (but totally shouldn't be).

2010-03-18T22:26:00.003-05:00

Peanut M&M's, in Easter colors.

Sonic burger. And tots.

Chili's chips and salsa.

Snickerdoodles. Please note the plural.

all this is the past 48 hours. apparently i really don't want my dress to fit.

arghhhhh. motivation, where the heck are you?

Posting Once Every Month is Totally Okay...

2010-03-17T22:37:00.004-05:00

1. Today my mom, aunt and I shopped for NINE hours. Nine. Hours. Straight. Ouch, my feet. They hurt. We were on a quest for a Mother of the Bride Dress. We had zero luck. We went to, in this order:

Stardust
Willow Bend (Neiman's, Saks, Ann Taylor Loft) (ok that last one was for me, not the MOB!)
Terry Costa
Lunch break at Chili's
Galleria (Neiman's, Saks, Macy's)
The store in Addison where I got my dress
BACK to Willow Bend for Macy's and Dillards
Michaels (for wedding crafty items)

Whew. We found NOTHING we liked. Not even one "maybe". It was disheartening and also exhausting!

2. Yesterday we got our very first wedding gift!! It showed up on Mark's doorstep, in all its Crate and Barrel glory.

3. So today I bought a big ol' stack of thank you cards.

4. Tomorrow we are crafting up some moss balls. Should be interesting!

5. The bridal diet is not going well. One great week is often followed up by 3 straight days or completely negating all that was good. Le sigh. Starting over tomorrow, again!

Listy, Version 3.0

2010-02-04T22:44:00.003-06:00

Reading:
* Firefly Lane

Listening To:
* Touch My Hand, David Archuleta (love it.)
* Sweet and Low, Augustana (the acoustic version will melt your heart)
* Justin Bieber (yeah, I'm a thirteen year old girl on the inside)

Planning:
* My wedding invitations (yikes)
* Games for a friends' bette party in NOLA next month (new ideas, anyone out there?)
* Flights to St. Lucia (5 months and one week, not that I'm counting...)

Working On:
* Updating my school's Twitter account multiple times per day. How can anyone be creative that much?!
* Grandparent's Day (argh)

Overwhelmed By:
* Weddings. My own and all the others.

Looking Forward To:
* The Olympics! Weren't they just in Beijing like, yesterday??
* A belated Valentine's Day celebration
* Weddings. My own and all the others :)

All Dogs Go To Heaven

2010-01-18T19:42:00.003-06:00

We lost a very special part of our family this weekend. Abby, my parents little border collie, was hit by a car yesterday. I am so heartbroken. She was a sweet girl and will be missed so much. Her brother Banjo, who has never spent a day without her by his side, is just as sad as we are and wondering where his best friend has gone.

It's so, so hard losing a pet.

We love you, Miss Abby.

Victory!

2010-01-12T15:32:00.000-06:00

A whole basket of cookies arrived at work today and were just sitting there in the break room, staring at me with their little chocolate chip eyes.

And I did not eat one of them. I didn't even do my usual break-off-a-corner-just-for-one-bite routine.

Six months and counting!

PS. Yes, I know I've been seriously MIA recently. My excuses are coming soon.

Blogging is difficult when...

2009-12-17T09:54:00.005-06:00

.... you're halfway moved out of your apartment!

Throw in the fact that we're two weeks away from Christmas (read: Christmas tree, presents, gift wrap, everywhere) and that we're storing wedding gear (read: candles, mason jars, bridesmaid dresses, a lot of decor "stuff") AND that we just bought the new TV (read: the old TV and it's entire entertainment center are sititng in the middle of Mark's dinning room) and.. things get difficult.

Oh, the stress. Oh, the mess.

One big part of marriage is the merging of two households. My household consists of a one bedroom apartment filled to the brim with a lot of knick knacks, tupperware and cat toys. His household is an actual house, overflowing with not only his stuff, but also his roommate's stuff, and now.. half of my stuff. That's a lot of stuff.

We decided early on that we aren't going to live together until we get married. We have our reasons, just like people who choose to do the opposite have their reasons. We almost caved when we first got engaged, but we decided that since we've waited this long, we could surely make it a few more months.

But. My apartment lease runs out December 31 and while I could have renewed it for another six months and everything would have been fine and dandy, the idea of not paying rent for six months and saiving up a big pile of cash sounded a lot better. I am so very fortunate to have the world's greatest aunt and uncle who live just up the highway from me, and who happen to be empty nesters living in a great big ol' empty house. They so kindly offered to let me stay with them until the wedding, sans rent!

So thus, we are moving all of my stuff out of my apartment and cramming it into Mark's house, wherever it will fit. The guest room was our obvious storage space, but lo and behold, we actually will have guests over the holidays, so it's all going into the bedroom and the dining room, more or less. We've decided that walking around the house is totally overrated. Climbing is way more fun.

The plan is to be moved out of my place before Christmas so basically.. this weekend.

Ahh!

Christmas Cheers and Reindeer Ears

2009-12-14T21:06:00.003-06:00

The Crazy Christmas Bachelorette Party was everything we hoped it would be: festive, silly, fun and filled with plenty of Santas and reindeer!

The five hostesses with the Mostesses met up at the Sheraton in downtown Austin to get to work. We each had our areas of expertise to get ready, and the clock was ticking!

Morgan, Sadie, Me, Ashley, Meredith

Sadie, Entertainment Chair for the evening, had collected photos and video clips from all the guests that she made into an amazing video. We played it for everyone at the party and let's just say it was a hit. My sides were hurting from laughing so hard! Sadie really put in some sweat and tears into this project, which I know the Bride (and everyone!) loved.

Yours truly took on decorations. Here I model some tinsel and admire my string o' panties, which only fell about three times. Success!

Bridesmaid and friend of the bride Morgan was in charge of costumes. A self-proclaimed craft queen, Morgan really ran with the costumes. Her theme? Christmas tacky. Check out those bows on the shirt our bride wore (most of) that night! And that veil? Complete with poinsettas and Christmas garland, it stood out wherever we were, as well as got tangled up in Royale's hair... many times. Morgan also brought reindeer ears for the all the guests, which guarenteed we could always find each other, no matter how crowded the bar (or elevator) was.

Ashley was in chrage of beveraves. Christmas cocktails and pink champagne all around! Also please note my excellent use of Christmas lights in the bar area (decoration shout out, what what!).

Meredith made sure everyone got there that night with her adorable invites. We hung one on the door of the hotel room, procliaming to everyone on our floor that yes, we are having a bachelorette party in here and we dare you to call and complain about us being too loud!

The evening was a total success. When dressed as festive as this bunch was, would you expect anything less?!

Party Games

2009-12-10T14:25:00.004-06:00

What's a good Bachelorette Party without some party games?!

Besides taking care of the decor, I also took charge of the games for my BFF's B-ette weekend in Austin. We've all been at showers and parties where we've been forced to play some pretty cheesy games -- think building wedding dresses out of toilet paper or making words out of the bride and groom's first names. I promised the other hostesses that my games would be cheese-free!

It seems pretty standard that, in my circle of friends at least, Bachelorette Parties also include a lingerie shower. So with the help of Martha and some creativity, I got things ready for the Name That Undie game. Have ya'll played this one before? It's one of my favorites. For each gift that the bride opens, the guests come up with a name for the ensemble, and a tag is tied to the piece with its name on it. Come honeymoon time, the bride gives her groom a choice of what she should wear each night, based on its name. He doesn't get to see anything until after he choses!

I found some cute stickers by Ms. Stewart at Michaels. They are supposed to be for photo captions, but they ended up working perfectly for the game. They had who, what, where and when lines on them, which we'll use for the gift's giver, undie description and newly christened name.

I mounted each sticker on some cute scrapbook paper, added a sticker and ribbon, and the tags were ready to tie onto the gifts!

Game Numero Two was an old standby classic - How Well Does the Bride Know Her Groom? I emailed the groom-to-be a list of questions for him to answer, and then the bride has to try and guess his responses. For each wrong guess, she has a sip of champagne, and for each correct guess, we all take a sip. I've also seen this game played with gum and candy, making the bride take another bite for each wrong guess. I tried to think a little out of the box with this one, asking questions like "what time is your wedding?" (groom's reply: 6ish) and name all the Bridesmaids (which, I'm glad to say, he got right!). I also added some multiple choice questions such as, Which would you rather:

a) the bride get a tattoo of her dad's face on her back, or
b) the bride wear permanent socks, 24-7
(he picked B, in case you're curious!).

And for the third and final game, I made jingle bell necklaces for all the guests to wear (reminder: our party is Christmas themed) with a little card on each one. Each card has a task written on it that that person has to make the bride do that night. Some of them are:

Take you picture on a sports car
Ask a guy to marry you
Write your phone number on a bathroom stall
Dance with ten different guys

Once each girl gets the bride to complete her task, she gives the bride her necklace. The goal is for the B2B to have all the necklaces (and a whole lot of jingle!) by the end of the night.

Note: Cats are great crafty partners. They especially like to help with projects that involve strings and/or bells.

What are some Bachelorette games you've played that aren't too cheesy? I'm always looking for a new idea!

Bridal Boot Camp - The Results!

2009-12-09T21:21:00.004-06:00

Cue the dramatic music.

Last weekend I went to my last class of boot camp for our final workout and.... the results. Yikes.

We started the (freezing) Saturday morning with six laps around the track. In forty-five degree weather. I live in Texas. I am a wimp in the cold. Then we ran suicides down the football field. Did more pushups than I could remember. And several other painful things. But I stuck it out. Finally, the hour ended and we gathered round to get our results.

I was nervous, for sure. I knew I didn't eat well for most of the five weeks, and I was afraid that was going to completely negate all the working out and physical activity I was doing in the class. When my name was called, I went to get my slip of paper with my before and after stats and debated waiting until I was in the car to check them. But everyone else was comparing their results, so I bit the bullet and took a peek.

I lost.... 1.3 pounds!! Woo! I'll take it. Better than nothing. MUCH better than gaining. I also lost a total of 3.5 inches total (from waist and hips) and gained a half inch in my biceps (which I am preeeetty sure is due to the fact that I was wearing a fleece pullover on the day they took the last measurements, but shh, don't tell). I also lost just over .5% body fat, so again, much better than nothing.

I left the class feeling very motivated. Hey, I can do this stuff! And just imagine how much better it could have turned out if I actually hadn't eaten Thanksgiving dinner four times?! So I'm ready to sign up again for the class in January, only this time - with the wedding looming only six months ahead - I am going to stick to it FOR REAL.

You've got my word. Wedding dress, here I come!!

What craft project requires glitter and panties?

2009-12-07T20:21:00.005-06:00

A Bachelorette Party, of course!

As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend some friends and I are throwing a Bachelorette party for our BFF and Bride to Be, Royale. We're meeting up with a bunch of ladies in Austin, where we have a hotel room and some great activities planned for Saturday night. We divided up the planning responsibilities among the five hostesses, and I took on decorations and party games.

Since the B-ette party ended up being in the middle of December, we decided to give it a silly Christmas theme, complete with holiday sweaters, Christmas cocktails, reindeer antlers and gifs under the tree. I decided to go old school with my crafts for the decor, using - you guessed it - glitter and Elmer's glue. Remember when all your crafts consisted of glitter and glue? Well, its a little messier than I remembered, and Mark's living room floor may have a hint of sparkle for the next several weeks, but I made (slightly shaky) personalized stockings for all the guests, with the bride's name glittered in gold. Some of these took me about four tries of wiping off the glue and starting over again, but alas, here they are!

Next up, I decided to hit up the Christmas aisle in Walmart for some inexpensive holiday decor. Eight dollars later, I had three strands of twinkle lights and thirty feet of tinsel. Eight dollars! That's my kind of price! I felt like I was still missing some stuff though, so I decided to hit up Victoria Secret and snag some of their 5 for $25 panties, and then found some ribbon and clothespins to create a string of panties to hang by the "mantle" (read: hotel room wall) along with the stockings. Extra bonus- the bride gets to take that decor home for the honeymoon!

I'm finishing up some posters and a couple other decoratey (totally a real word) ideas to bring along with me. I'm running out of time, so I might have some last minute crafting to do once I get to Austin this weekend. You're allowed to carry a hole punch onto a plane, right?

Stars, They're Just Like Us!

2009-12-06T07:14:00.006-06:00

They Craft!

Saturday afternoon, I was frantically running around trying to get some things accomplished before watching UT in the Big 12 Championship Game (ps. Hunter Lawrence, I love you). I knew I wanted to work on some crafty wedding projects while the game was on, so I stopped by Michael's on my was over to Mark's house. Once inside, I grabbed a basket and started my lap around the store.

This weekend my BFF/college roomie is having her Bachelorette party in Austin. Five bridesmaids (myself included) are hosting the party, which will have a Tacky Christmas meets Lingerie Shower meets Night on the Town theme. I am in charge of games and decorations, so I hit up Michaels with a few items in mind, but was also looking for anything and everything that jumped out at me. I literally walked through the entire store, aisle by aisle, waiting for inspiration to hit. After about an hour (what happens to time when you're in Michaels, seriously?!) I headed to the check out line. I was digging through my coupon bag in my purse (yes, I carry a gallon size Ziploc bag full of coupons at all time. Laugh if you must, but I NEVER pay full price!) when the lady behind me (who must have seen all the clipped coupon goodness) asks if I have any spare ones she can use. I strike up a conversation with her as I rummage through my pile a little more to find her one and she tells me I'll never guess who she just saw in the yarn aisle.

"Who?" (I'm thinking hmm.. maybe it was a Dallas athlete? But in the yarn aisle? Maybe not.)

"Uma Thurman."

"Wha? Uma? Uma Thurman's in this Michael's right now?!" (Frantically scanning around the store to catch a glimpse)

"Yeah. She was buying yarn. She said her friend is teaching her to knit."

"Does she live in Dallas? I can't believe this!" (Still searching everywhere for her. I seriously walked up and down every aisle in the place. Some even twice. How could I have missed here?!)

"I don't think so. She must be visiting someone."

Sigh. It's my turn to pay and I've missed Uma. But be it known that Uma shops at my Michaels. Or at least she did this weekend. If you happen to see her knitting in the pages of US Weekly next week, know that you heard it here first. Uma crafts with the rest of us. Stars. They really are just like us!

I Survived!

2009-12-03T15:40:00.004-06:00

Five weeks ago, I started a boot camp class. One day one, they weighed us, measured us and calculated our body fat percentages and then last night, I went back for our “after” measurements. Our last day of class is Saturday, at which time they will give us our results and someone will be crowned The Biggest Loser.

I started the class out with much excitement and faith in myself to stick it out. I have a wedding dress to get in shape for -- what better motivation could there be?! Our trainer told us on that first day that these workouts were only part of the plan, and that 75% of our results would be based on what we eat for the next month. She encouraged us to eat lots of protein each day, have small meals and snacks every few hours, and drink water, water and more water. I was ready to commit! Bring on the strapless dress and honeymoon swimsuits! I’ll do whatever it takes to kick-start my wedding workout.

For the first week, I was gung ho. No office chocolate bowl for me! Nothing but green beans, grilled chicken and bottled water. Week two, I was still eating my protein and veggies, but the occasional trip out to eat didn’t seem like such a bad idea (but I ordered a salad!). By week three I was back on my daily Diet Dr. Pepper, occasionally sneaking a mini snickers bar and grabbing lunch at Chick-fil-a. Week four rolls around, and oh hello, it’s Thanksgiving! Not only did I miss one of the classes that week (we were out of town - totally legit excuse!), but I also ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pie not one, not two, not three but FOUR TIMES that week.

When Monday rolled around I knew I had to start over and get geared up for our weigh in on Wednesday. I ate the salad bar at work and skipped out on the ranch dressing. I drank plenty of water and pushed myself extra hard at boot camp class that night. By Tuesday I was still going strong, even going for a quick extra credit run that evening. Yesterday morning I considered going liquids only to help make up for the Thanksgiving Week of Doom, but knew I’d never make it. So I had another salad for lunch. Two hours before our class started, I might have eaten two mini chocolate bars - but would those really make a difference in 120 minutes time!?

So it was with a bit of fear that I stepped on the scale last night. We don't get our official results until our last class on Saturday, and I'm afraid of being a little disappointed. I think I fell off the bandwagon on the eating well side of the deal, but - I will say this. Last night we ran 6 laps around the track, or one and a half miles, without stopping. This was a feat for me - I have been a wimpy jogger for a long time now, never lasting very long consecutively. We also ran suicides across the football field, did lunges to the fifty yard line and back, did push-ups out the wazoo and ran the bleachers for ten minutes straight. I know I've improved my endurance and if I keep it up (which I plan to!), I will be wedding dress ready by this summer!

Boot camp results to come later this week!

e-pics!!!!

2009-11-30T16:39:00.005-06:00

I was scrambling around Wednesday morning, trying to get packed to leave town for Thanksgiving when I quickly opened my email. Buried in between 37 emails from JCrew (really JC, I love you but the email overload is killing me) I saw an email saying our photographer Brooks had posted some of our engagement pictures on Facebook. I dropped my pile of laundry I was in the process of folding/packing and plopped down at the computer. Umm... yay!!!!!

Here are our favs that he posted on the 'Book. Below each, a narration of what was going down during the (super fun but slightly awkward at times) photo shoot!

Yes, here we are canoodling in front of a birdbath, on the one and only busy street in Muenster, where we took the pics. Cars were driving by staring, while Mark and I snuggled and laughed and acted like we always hung out with our faces two inches apart.

This one could not have come out more perfect. Love. It.

This one took some serious work. Turns out Longhorns aren't that cooperative and don't always want to pop their head out from under the fence and smile at the camera. Behind the scenes action included my dad running around pouring out range cubes (read: Longhorn Treats) on the grass in strategic places, our photographer laying on the ground tasting said range cubes, and Mark and I once again canoodling like none of this was out of the ordinary and hoping desperately to not get poked by a set of horns! The results? Pretty much amazing.

"Oh yes, we were just out working on the farm and now we are just resting against this here rusty gate as the sun sets behind us."

Looooove this one! Love it. This was taken through the gate that leads down the road to my parents' place. Perfect mix of Texas flair and a bit o' romance.

Now this one may be my fav. What you can't tell is that Mark is totally sweating/shaking/straining to hold me up as we gaze at each other and smile. I guess running around and twirling me in the fields isn't in his normal work out regime. What would have thought?

We are thrilled with how these and all the others came out. I've got some great Save the Date's in the works using some of them, and we know just what the parents are getting for Christmas this year - framed pictures of us (and perhaps a few cows)!

Merry Christmas to Us!

2009-11-28T11:25:00.008-06:00

Santa came early this year! With the wedding consuming all our finances here lately, Mark and I had already decided we were going to keep this Christmas to a bare minimum. I'd started to get creative and was hunting for the best bargains that would stay within our $50 each budget. That is, until I mentioned (ever so casually) to Mark a couple weeks ago that maybe we should buy a new TV as our Christmas gift to each other and take advantage of all the Post-Thanksgiving sales and great financing offers out there. We both have older than old televisions that were nothing fancy and pretty clunky and had been dreaming about a new flat screen for some time now. I'd been saying for at least a year that when we got engaged, I'd buy us a new TV (yes, a total bribe.. I know!), but once we actually did, we couldn't stand to spend the money when it could go towards the wedding.

But. Saving every penny for wedding stuff gets really old. So I just threw out the idea, that we could buy one now and split the payments for the next several months, to see what he thought about it.

To say he ran with this idea is a bit of an understatement. For the next fourteen days straight he read about TV's online, compared prices, shopped around, read reviews and talked to the experts. This weekend we decided to blow a bit of our wedding fund and headed out to Best Buy and came home with this little guy:

Annnnnd, now we are back to saving up for the wedding, all day, every day. Scout's honor. In fact, I'm asking Santa for chair rentals and pinspot lighting this year. But we all need a break sometime, right? And you can bet I'll be watching plenty of "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway" on the new tube.

What's short and cute and blue all over?

2009-11-24T22:26:00.005-06:00

The bridesmaid dresses! And.. they’re here!

I was having such a blah day. I am off work this week and decided to go walk around the mall to perhaps find a new sweater to wear to Oklahoma this weekend for Thanksgiving. I was armed with a whole stack of coupons and hit up the pre-Black Friday sales with high hopes. I did mange to find all kinds of cute stuff, as well as some great deals on a few Christmas gifts that I went ahead and knocked off my list. I was carrying a whole slew of bags with me and stopped to treat myself to lunch at Corner Bakery in the mall food court. I never eat at the mall when I am by myself, but I was feeling especially independent and snagged a single table over by the ice rink and sat back to enjoy my salad.

A cuople hours later, I’m in my apartment, putting away my purchases and stashing some gifts in the back of the closet when it suddenly occurs to me.. where is my Banana Republic bag? I run down to the car, nothing. Look back in all my other bags, nothing. Run back over to the mall, hit up Corner Bakery and EVERY store I went to, nothing. I lost a brand new sweater and dress that I had just bought, without so much as even trying them on first! I went back home and sulked/fumed/couldn’t get over how ridiculous I am for losing something a mere twenty minutes after I purchased it. Nothing could cheer me up.

Until! I was moping around when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number so I let it go to voicemail, then checked the message as soon as it appeared on my cell screen. Maybe some honest chap had in fact turned in my lost Banana bag! (I’d left my number with mall security, just in case.) Well it wasn’t my lost loot, but instead the shop where I had ordered my bridesmaid dresses this summer - they were here! She said they could hold them for me as long as needed, but she wanted to let me know they were here and looked beautiful.

I jumped in the car and high-tailed it over to Plano, where I picked up all of the dresses. They. Looked. Fabulous. They might not be the cute LBD from Banana that some random girl out there it sporting courtesy of me (grr), but they are twelve adorable dresses that my bridal party are going to rock come July! Leave it to the wedding to turn my drag day into fab!

Asking My Crew

2009-11-23T11:16:00.009-06:00

One of the first things I started working on when we got engaged was our bridal party. I was super excited about inviting all our friends to be a part of the wedding and start sharing all the plans and details with them. Mark quickly came up with his list of guys and waited until he saw them in person to ask them if they would be his groomsmen. Me on the other hand, I knew I wanted to do something a little different than just asking my dozen girls when I saw them or calling them up to pop the bridesmaid question.

I started googling around for creative ways to ask your bridesmaids. Surprisingly, I couldn't really find much of anything terribly creative or unique, other than sending personalized fortune cookies or some sort of other little charm or token. I wasn't too keen on the fortune cookie idea (although I did debate it for a while) and everything else out there was a little more than I wanted to spend on this task (especially when you multiply it times 12), so I decided to enlist the most creative person I know to help me design something to send out.

Enter Maid of Honor/Sister/Graphic Designer Kelly. She worked with my (somewhat amateur) sketches of ideas that I had for postcard designs and created an adorable card using Illustrator. I knew I wanted them to match the wedding theme (although let's be honest, at this point we had zero theme!), so we went for a rustic, chic design, with a little bit of Texas flare. So Kelly designed some cute little boots with Mark and my initials on them and we incorporated a slogan that I found somewhere online when I was searching around for ideas: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something You.

We printed the cards out using my parent's rinky-dink printer on some heavy linen paper, and then trimmed them to jumbo postcard size with our handy-dandy paper cutter. I wrote each girl a personal note on the cards, telling them how much I loved them and how great it would be to have them as one of my bridesmaids. We then made envelopes for each one out of scrapbook paper and some cute flower stickers, and added an address card with the same little cowboy boots on the front of each envelope.

I sent them off in the mail and waited for the phone calls from the girls as they got them. Everyone loved them and was thrilled to join our crazy wedding party! I am truly blessed to have such fabulous friends who are ready and willing to stand up for me on my big day, as well as listen to me talk about the wedding for one year straight :)

Check, Checkity, Check!

2009-11-20T13:30:00.009-06:00

What's better than making a great big list of things to do, and then checking tasks off as you accomplish them?? For me, being the over-organized, list-loving, sharpie-carrying B2B that I am, not much!

Earlier this week, I met up with the WP to catch up on the wedding plans. She is a total rock star, and made me a calendar for the next eight months, showing what we need to be focusing on week by week. Now normally you would think that 32 weeks of things to do and projects to complete and crafts to craft would be terrifying/overwhelming, but I was so excited! I think its purely because of the calendar/To Do format that she used, which is one big list just waiting for me to cross things off of it. She, Mark and I are all sharing the calendar on Google documents, so we can all keep track of what we need to be working on and what's coming up ahead, as well as edit and change/add things to the plan as needed. Right now, we're on Save the Dates, which means I need to get them designed and printed (still waiting on the photos for that), get our wedding website completed (which is waaay more time consuming that I thought it would be!) and get some of the hotel blocks figured out. Apparently some people are WAY on the ball and book hotel rooms as soon as they know about the wedding. Who would have thought?!

It feels good to have a game plan now, and a nice organized list to keep us all on track. I'm off work all next week (yay Thanksgiving Break!), so I should be able to get cracking on it. Plus, we'll be spending time at both parents' houses for the holiday, so that should be plenty of time to sit around and work on our website, while we stuff our faces with turkey (twice!).

The infamous calendar, courtesy of my WP/BFF

Let's take this party across the border! (passports not required.)

2009-11-18T06:08:00.011-06:00

Before we ever had a florist, a dress, a DJ or colors, we had our Rehearsal Dinner booked and its menu selected. Mark's parents are really on the ball. It only took about two weeks after we got engaged before they wanted to get our RD figured out and taken care of. We are so excited and grateful that they want to host this for us, so we agreed to meet them in Muenster one weekend this summer to scope out possible places for the party.

Now, in case you didn't already know, Muenster is a small town. Like really, really small. From the get go, the future in-laws were worried that they wouldn't be able to find something they liked or something that would be as nice and fancy as they had envisioned our Rehearsal Dinner being. I knew we could find something that would work, but they definitely had to be convinced. Mark and I did our homework before they came into town and scoped out anything and everything that might be what they were looking for. We had a list of local restaurants, tea rooms, hotels and bed and breakfasts that were in and around Muenster that would host a private party of our size. Many of them were really nice and quite charming. But there was one that stood out with the in-laws, hands down. The funny part? It's not in Muenster, or even Texas.. it's in Oklahoma!

So we are rehearsing in Texas, then taking our bridal party posse across the border to Mark's home state of OK for our RD at the Winstar Golf Course Clubhouse. (Yup, that's Winstar as in the ginormous casino just across the Texas border. Pay no attention to all the crazy grandma gamblers, just drive on past all those slot machines and neon lights to the scenic golf course tucked behind it!). It's a great setting, and can totally compare to any big city country club that we would never be able to find out in the sticks where we're getting married.

It sounds totally silly, but a dual state wedding is perfect for us. My family's from Texas, Mark's is from Oklahoma. I went to school at the University of Texas, Mark graduated from Oklahoma State. My friends are scattered around TX, his friends mostly call OK home. My extended family will be coming in from all over Texas, Mark's will be road-tripping it across Oklahoma for our wedding. And it's not as bad as it sounds... our small town wedding is actually less than ten miles south of the state line, so while it may sound like we have to drive miles and miles to get to our out-of-state rehearsal dinner, it's really no further than we'd likely have to drive anyways. Plus, we think its a great way to include a little bit of both of our backgrounds in our wedding weekend!

Find the perfect dress? Oh yeah, we did it!

2009-11-17T09:06:00.004-06:00

This past Saturday, I gathered my posse and set out on a mission: buy a dress. No matter what, I was coming home with a dress ordered! I'd looked high and low and probably tried on fifty dresses already.. I knew what I wanted, I knew what my budget was, and we were going to find us a winner! It was game time.

I'm happy to report we was successful - THE dress has been ordered!

My mom, my little sister/MOH, my aunt and Mark's mom met at my apartment bright and early Saturday morning. I had warned them before: Go to bed early on Friday! Eat a big breakfast! Pack snacks! Bring drinks! We had three back-to-back appointments scheduled and there was no time for breaks. I meant business.

I'm thrilled with the dress I got, excited to have spent the day with these four awesome ladies and so very relieved to check this (rather large) wedding task off the list!

My aunt, me and my mom outside the shop where we found out winner!

Me and FMIL, with the official dress receipt!

I know what we'll be arguing about in 20 years...

2009-11-13T11:16:00.004-06:00

This week Mark and I finished up one part of the marriage preparations that our church is having us complete before we get married - couples counseling! Although, they were careful to tell us many times it wasn't counseling, but just guidance and advice about what we can expect between now and forever.

The church paired us up with sponsors from our parish - a super nice couple who just celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary. They were full of stories and tips of how they have made their marriage work when times got tough, and the importance of their faith along the way. We found our meetings with them to be extremely helpful, and also really pretty fun! We realized there were so many topics out there that we just assumed we agreed on, without ever really sitting down and talking about them. Everything from children to shopping to our extended families to how often Mark will play golf or I'll go out for drinks with the girls - we discussed our expectations and communication styles and the best ways to resolve conflict along the way. I've said it before, but I think a class like this - even if it's one day for just an hour - seems to be so beneficial. I know we took so much from it, and will miss heading over to our sponsor couple's house every other week! Not only did they make great snacks for us to munch on while we were there (note to self: candy corn + peanuts = yum), but they provided a great example of a loving family and the importance working together to put your marriage first, no matter what life throws at you.

Engagement Photos!

2009-11-11T10:21:00.005-06:00

We (finally) took our engagement photos!

After a week of absolutely gorgeous weather (As in sunny and 72 degrees. In November. Thank you, Texas weather), I was stalking the forecast for our rescheduled e-pic photo shoot. There was talk of a cold front coming in the day before, and possibly some wind and light rain. I prayed in church the weekend before for this storm to hold off just one more day (judge me if you must, but we really did need to get these photos taken and off the To-Do List!) and was thrilled when we got up to Muenster around lunch time yesterday and it was still warm and sunny.

After some quick showers and sprucing-up on our part, Brooks and Leigh, from Brooks Whittington Photography, showed up at my parents’ place for the shoot. I had a couple places scoped out that we wanted to take photos at, so we made a quick game plan on where we’d go first. Much to my surprise, Brooks already knew about the photos I loved and even knew about my steal-of-a-deal white dress! Turns out, he’s came across my blog and had read about my inspiration pics (umm.. hi Brooks!).

So we headed to downtown Muenster to get started. It was a little awkward at first, because there are so many people everywhere, staring at us, while we canoodled outside of the bank. And the grocery store. And some restaurants. We had some pretty serious gawkers - one guy driving by even came to a stop on the road in front of us to stare. Maybe he thought we were celebrities? A few frantic outfit changes in the car later, and we ended the day taking pictures at my parents' house, as the sun was setting and the longhorns were eating. Yup, eating. I'm really curious/excited to see how they turn out! Brooks would show us a few of them on his camera screen every now and then, and they all looked fabulous! He told us it would take about a week and a half to get them all edited and up online and even said he really wanted to get me one to post here on my blog. Thanks Brooks and Leigh for a fun shoot! I'm counting down the days until we get to see the pictures!

Perfect Proposal, The Finale

2009-11-06T07:48:00.009-06:00

Who would have thought the story of our engagement would be so freaking long?! I started telling it here and here. Here's the big finale!

After Mark's strange phone call, we kept driving towards McKinney and eventually ended up in a newly constructed neighborhood called Adriatica. We'd driven past this spot several times before and often admired the amazing homes along the water and imagined living in one someday. We'd watched as a bell tower was built along the lake's shore and tried to guess what on earth it was used for.

Mark turned the car onto the road that led directly into the development, right up alongside the bell tower. He told me he had arranged for us to take a tour, and my first thought was that we were going to tour one of the huge houses we had always admired. I said something along the lines of "Take a tour? Are the owners at home?!" It wasn't until he had parked and gotten out that I realized he meant take a tour of the bell tower. We got out of the car and met a lady and her young daughter, who took us into the tower and started leading us up the stairs to the very top. Her little daughter tagged along with us, and we all made small talk on the way up.

We had to climb some pretty steep steps and ended up at the very top of the tower by the bell, where you could see great views of the surrounding areas. We had barely gotten up off the ladder that led us up before our tour guide said something about "some work she had to take care of" downstairs, but we could take our time up here enjoying the view, and then she and her daughter quickly left back down the stairs. She was not smooth at all. Her excuse to leave so quickly seemed a little to rehearsed. At this point... I knew. Something was definitely up!

We spent a few minutes looking around at the neighborhood below and taking some pictures before Mark took me aside. He had brought up his camera case (which I did notice was a little larger than usual.. but I figured he had brought binoculars?) and took out a small black box. He got down on his knee, said some really amazing things that I knew were amazing, but seemed to be going in one ear and out the other, and then opened the box and said, "Amanda, will you marry me?"

I had a somewhat out of body experience when he was down on his knee. It was like I was watching the scene from above, seeing me there is this momentous occasion in my life. I kept thinking "OMG this is really happening! Pay attention to what he's saying! OMG OMG." And then in an instant he was done talking and opening the box and I saw the ring and again thought "OMG" and I think I even reached for it to put on, instead of letting him take it out and put on for me. We spent a few more minutes up at the top of the tower together, taking some pictures and (mostly me) exclaiming "we're engaged!"

After awhile we walked back down the stairs and met the nice lady and her daughter who had helped conspire with Mark for this whole plan. She wanted to see my ring and actually got goosebumps on her arm when I showed it to her. Turns out her entire family is in the jewelry business and she knew all kinds of weird diamonds code words that she was asking Mark about and she concluded that it was the perfect ring. Which I already knew! We said our goodbyes and thank you's, and then Mark and I hung around and walked around the lake before calling our parents to spread the news. We finished the evening with dinner at Samson's, a new restaurant right across the water from the bell tower.

It was the most perfect day :)

Bridal Boot Camp - Ahh!

2009-11-03T08:03:00.004-06:00

Today is a big day for two (very different) reasons:

1. Today is my birthday! This year is the third birthday I've spent with Mark and the first one when I didn't wish for a diamond ring when I blew out my candles ;) Instead, I wished to survive these next 8 months and enjoy the wedding planning/engagement process. I already feel like we're taking this time for granted and not having as much fun as we should be. Aren't you supposed to be living on Cloud 9 during your engagement, enjoying all the bride-to-be excitement and attention? Walking around with a sparkle in your eye and a glow on your face? I feel totally normal, so I'm wishing to get back into the Engaged Gal Bliss and not take this time for granted. I know that we're about to get swept up in the holidays, and then before we know it we'll be in January and six months away from the big day!

2. I survived my first day of Bridal Boot Camp! Yesterday was Day One of the five week class. I arrived somewhat terrified, and then one hour later I left knowing this is just what I need to kick my booty back into shape and get me ready for a wedding dress (and a couple bridesmaid dresses in the meantime!). I ran more last night than I have in a reallllly long time. We did sprints across the baseball field and back… like four times. And most of the people in this class are fast. Like really fast. I had to really push myself so that I didn’t end up being the last person to cross back over the line. Plus, we did tons of strength training and arm work. Strapless dresses, here I come!
We are going out to celebrate my big 2-7 tonight, and I get to choose where! I already know where I want to go… pizza at Fireside Pies! But don’t tell my boot camp instructor. We are supposed to turn in food journals every week and I’m pretty sure stuffing your face full of pizza and wine is not on the approved menu. Shh.

Boo!

2009-10-30T08:48:00.004-05:00

We're headed up to Stillwater for the UT-OSU game tomorrow! This will be our third time to go to our rival game, and I'm felling pretty good that it will also be the third time Texas wins while we're there! It's turned into a mini tradition for us to go to the game each year, and it always seems to fall right around my birthday, which makes it extra-fun!

us at the game last year, in Austin

Mark's brother/Best Man is home for the week (all the way from China!!) to come to the game with us. So it's me and two Cowboys headed up to OSU. I think I may be cheering alone this year!

It Rained on My Parade

2009-10-27T11:10:00.006-05:00

Well, ok. Not on my parade exactly, but on our engagement pic day? Yes, it rained. Hard. And it was freeeeezing. And windy. And if you know me at all, you know I hate the wind with a passion. Sigh. We have to reschedule. For November. Isn't it cold in November?

I was a grump all day yesterday. Mark and I both took the day off from work and spent the weekend up in Muenster, where we were going to take our pics. The weather was perfect Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then come Monday morning, the temperature drops twenty degrees, it rains off and on for the entire day, and the sun decides to skedaddle. Not exactly the weather we're looking for to create those oh-so-perfect shots. So I moped around all day and cursed the skies. At one point my mom said to me "well let's not let this ruin our day," to which I grumpily replied "it already has! my day is ruined! ruuuuu-iiiiiiinnnn-eddd." (yeah, drama much?). My mom's response? "Well fine, but don't ruin our days too!" Mark got a good laugh out of that one.

Humph.

But we did make the most of our day in Muenster. First, we finally sat down with our florists and talked about what we wanted. Colors, flowers, linens, candles, sticks, lanterns, wood, iron, crystals.. we pretty much want it all! They are going to put together three sample budgets/levels of decor that they can do, and then we'll pick and choose from there. I'm excited to go back and see what they put together for us!

After leaving the florist, we decided that since we didn't have to go home and get all done up for our e-pics, we would road trip it to Denison to check out A-1 Rentals. We wanted to look at linens and try to pick out some colors. It didn't take both my mom and me long to realize that we of course LOVE the super-expensive, $30 each linens. Go figure!

So the weekend wasn't a total bust, but I am still bummed with-a-capital-B that we didn't get to take our pictures. For now, it's still on the To Do list.. and I'm sure ready to start crossing things off!

Perfect Proposal, Part 2

2009-10-23T14:39:00.009-05:00

When I last left off, Mark had asked me to dinner and told me to wear something nice. I convinced myself not to get my hopes up, and assumed he just wanted to go out to dinner somewhere nice, nothing more. That Friday at work, I wouldn't even let myself think about our plans, because I was always hyping our dates up and expecting anything and everything to be THE NIGHT when he proposed.

He told me to leave work right when I got off and go change, because he wanted to go eat dinner early (clue # 1 that this was something unusual!), so I raced out of the office at 4:00 on the dot. When I got up to my apartment and unlocked the door, I jumped because he was already in my living room, dressed nice and waiting (clue #2! Why did he leave work early?). At this point, I am still ignoring all the signs that something is up, and proceeding as if all of this is totally normal.

"Oh hi! You scared me. I didn't expcet you to be here already.. is that what you're wearing?"

Now to prove to myself that I wasn't expceting anything at all to happen, I hadn't even thought about what I was going to wear. When I saw Mark in his Sunday best (so out of character for him!) and could tell he was anxiously waiting to leave for dinner (Ummm why? It's only 4:15!), I scrambled into my closet and tried to quickly pick something out. I grabbed a dress that I had always liked and put on a pair of dressier than usual shoes. In my head I briefly thought "hmm is this the dress I am going to get engaged in!?", but then quickly pushed the thought out.

I barely had time to run a brush through my hair before we were out the door and on the road. I didn't ask any of the normal questions while we were driving ("So, where are we going to go eat?") and just pretended like this was all perfectly normal. Then there was clue #3. Mark's cell phone rings and I hear the following (one-sided) conversation:

Hello?.... Oh yeah, we're just on our way.... ok... ok... ok... ok... ok... ok.... Great, see you soon.. Bye.

He honestly must have said OK about 8 times! I turned and looked at him after he hung up and asked who had called. His response, "oh, just someone."

I didn't ask any further questions. Something was clearly up. At this point, I started to get freakishly nervous and my stomach started hurting. What this really IT?!!

My Best Girls

2009-10-22T21:45:00.004-05:00

I like to think of myself as a somewhat professional bridesmaid.

No, I don’t have 27 dresses stashed away, but I’ve been in four weddings so far, will be in two more before my own, and I do have a dedicated corner in the back of my closet just for bridesmaid dresses. I know that being a bridesmaid can be tough work. Planning theme showers and bachelorette weekends within groups of other girls usually involves some drama. Attending numerous parties and purchasing the various wardrobes required for b-maids is often financially straining. Getting up-do’s, traveling out of town, paying for hotel rooms, purchasing silver shoes, gold shoes, brown shoes, white shoes, getting lingerie for the bride, pots and pans for the couple, a round of drinks at a party - weddings have pretty much been a line item in my personal budget for the past five years, long before I ever got engaged!

Bridesmaid Hall of Fame, Starring Yours Truly:

On the flip side, I know how fantastic it is to be so closely involved in the weddings of your closest friends and family members. It’s so exciting to shop for wedding dresses with your best friends. I love being included in every shower, party or event honoring the couple leading up to their marriage. Some of my best weekends ever were at my girlfriends’ bachelorette parties in New York City, Dallas, Vegas, Austin and holed up in a cozy lakehouse. And don’t even get me started on how much fun the rehearsal dinners are, with their Ode to Couple slideshows and hours of open mic time! Plus, no matter how costly the dresses, shoes and accessories add up to be, there’s nothing better than being with your BFF on the morning of her wedding, sipping champagne while everyone gets their hair and makeup done together, anxiously awaiting the time to put on the dresses and head to the church.

Ever since I started to know that Mark was The One, I’ve been mentally constructing my own wedding party list. There have been days in the past couple years where I pulled out the post-it notes at work and started listing out the names of all my best girls, trying to figure out who I would include. The problem? I have waaay too many friends. Best friends. LLYAS friends (that’s Love Ya Like A Sister, for all those who didn’t speak in AIM code all through high school). I usually just pushed the list back into my mind thinking “I’ll figure that out when the time comes.” Well, fast forward to May and the time was here.

My initial thought was to narrow it down to six ‘maids. That would include my two sisters, two friends from high school, and two girls from college. Seemed simple enough and certainly nice and fair, right? But it wasn’t. I don’t have two BEST friends from high school or college, I have tons. And how could I take my circle of BFF’s and cut out 3-4 of them, when we all love each other and share in our lives together equally? I agonized about this for the first several weeks of our engagement, truly not knowing that to do. I considered doing only high school friends or only college friends, but that would eliminate a big chunk of my very best friends, and I couldn’t imagine my wedding without them there by my side, as I had been for some many of their big days.

So I did the only thing that made sense. I included them all! All twelve of them. My two beautiful sisters, my five high school girls who have stuck by me for the past 12+ years (through countless loser boyfriends and bad hairdo’s), and my five college besties, who’ve been by my side through frat parties, football games and countless late night Taco C runs. Sure, I get some odd looks when people ask how many bridesmaids I’m having, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And really, is it ever a problem to have too many best friends?

e-pic Shopping

2009-10-19T19:40:00.010-05:00

As you all know, I don't have much luck when it comes to finding a dress when I actually need one. So when Mark and I started planning our wardrobe for our engagement picture session this weekend, he let out a groan and said he wasn't going dress shopping with me this time. Ok. I'll admit it. I get a little particular when it comes to shopping for dresses for any occasion. What can I say? I know what I want and I won't stop until I find it (on sale, of course).

On Sunday, I called friend and Bridesmaid Stephanie to wish her a Happy Anniversary (she got married last October 18! Time flies!) and mentioned to her that we were taking e-pics at my parents' house this weekend and we had no idea what we were going to wear. We want a casual, country, we're-from-Texas feel to our pics, so we knew we were going to wear our cowboy boots, but not sure what to pair them with. Steph remembered a friend of hers who had great e-pics that fit our description and emailed them over to me.

Prepare to swoon.

How perfect is that? I pretty much want to recreate it to a T. Next up:

And now for the piece d'resistence. The most adorable Save the Date. Ever.

I simply had to do these poses with Mark and me, running through the fields of Muenster, chasing the cows in our boots with the sun gleaming down on us. So I set out for the mall this weekend, sans Mark, to find me a dress. Because surely I can find a white, summer, sundress in the middle of October, right?

Right! For once, the Shopping Gods shined down on me and there it was, sitting on the Clearance Rack at Macy's, in just my size. Marked down to $26.

I grabbed it and went straight to the register, where it rung up at $22. Score! It's not exactly like the dress in my e-pic inspiration, but I think the embroidery on the bottom and ruffle hem gives it the perfect country flair. Now all we need is a sunny day (And preferably a somewhat warm one. Come on Texas, I know you can do it, even at the end of October.)

Wedding Dress Shopping, 2.0

2009-10-17T16:49:00.006-05:00

As I mentioned before, this dress shopping is proving to be tougher than I thought it would! After going to three different shops last week and really not finding anything that said to me I'M YOUR DRESS!, I felt discouraged and lost on where to go from there. So I did what any bride in this situation would do... I stalked anyone and everyone whose wedding photos I could find on Facebook. I like to see real brides wearing their dresses at their weddings more than just looking at the pictures of the models on the designers' websites, and what better place to find hundreds of wedding photos that the good ol' FB?!

I started looking through all the photos of my friends and if I saw one that looked like it was at a wedding, I stalked that person's photo album and found all sorts of lovely weddings, brides and dresses! I'm not going to lie, several of the photos in my Wedding Inspiration Folder on my computer (ok, they are actually all just saved to my desktop, taking over the screen, but whatev) are from random people's weddings that I don't know but found on Facebook!

I came across one of my Facebook friends whose profile picture was of her on her wedding day. She was wearing a gorgeous dress, with lace and detailing and a sweetheart neck and pretty much everything I was looking for. I am real life friends with this girl, sort of. We went to college together, she was a year or two younger than me, and I haven't talked to her in oh... five years. But I was feeling desperate and sent her a message asking who made her dress and where she got it. She wrote back right away and was super sweet (whew! I'm not a total Facebook stalker creeper!) and told me it was a Paloma Blanca and that she got it at Mockingbird Bridal in Dallas. Wha? I went there last week! But admitedly, we had just come from another store where I must have tried on 20 dresses and we barely had time to scarf down a quick lunch before our appointment at Mockingbird, so once we got there I was tired, hungry and slightly crabby. I breezed through the racks, grabbed five totally random dresses and tried them on, not liking any of them. I knew I didn't give Mockingbird a fair chance, so I called and made another appointment for Friday.

I did my research this time, scouring the Paloma Blanca site and picking out eight dresses that I wanted to try. I was off work Friday (Fair Day!), so I grabbed my BFF and Bridesmaid Virginia, and we showed up with a plan. We tried on four of the PB's I had on my list, as well as two others that I ended up snagging from the girl who was in the dressing room next to mine. She kept coming out in these gorgeous dresses that I'd be eyeing, and my sales associate was kind enough to get them for me to try as well.

I pretty much loved every one of the dresses I tried on. They were so fabulous. I have my Top Three, with a very good chance that one of them is The One! (!!!!)

I'm going to hold off posting the ones in the running, but since it's alway fun to look at dresses, here are more of the rejects! PS. These aren't the best photos because you aren't technically allowed to take pics at this shop. But BM V was totally awesome at sneaking them when we were in the fitting room!

The Perfect Proposal... Part 1

2009-10-14T09:52:00.006-05:00

In college, my roommate and I used to spend a lot of time watching our favorite channel, TLC (hello, Trading Spaces was THE best show ever!). One of our favorite shows was Perfect Proposal - please tell me someone else out there used to watch this every afternoon? - where perky host Nikki Boyer would help scheme with guys who were wanting to propose to their girlfriends in a very extravagant way. They would plan out these whole plots where they would trick their girlfriends into thinking they had been selected to participate in a television show about something or other (because how else would they explain the camera crew following them around everywhere?) and would lead them along until bam! They dropped down on one knee, pulled out the ring box and asked the big question. The girl’s entire family was usually hiding behind some bushes, watching and waiting to celebrate with them afterwards.

Here's a clip for all those who didn't watch this show every day before lunch, like we did:

Roomie and I loved this show. At the time, she was hoping for a proposal from her then boyfriend so that she could have a candle lighting ceremony at our sorority meeting. We used to joke that Nikki Boyer was always just around the corner, disguised as a waitress at the restaurant or the sales clerk at the Gap, waiting to pull a fast one on her and start the grand proposal into motion. I remember thinking that I wanted to be surprised whenever my engagement came around (at the time, I didn’t even have a boyfriend), but wasn’t exactly keen on being on television for the big moment! (side note: my high school boyfriend asked me to prom on a Jumbotron at the Dallas Mavs game and I was slightly mortified. Public stunts? Not my cup of tea!)

Fast forward to last Spring, Mark and I have been happily dating for almost three years, I’ve started dropping the we-should-get-married hints for at least six months and I’m secretly hoping that every time he’s running late or claiming to be “busy” after work that he is actually plotting his grand proposal plot, with or without Nikki Boyer. Needless to say, my heart sinks after every dinner date, or trip to the mall, or evening at home on the couch when there isn’t a proposal and I continually tell myself to stop expecting it. I didn’t even know if he had bought the ring at this point, so I set myself up to wait it out for at least a few more months.

So when Mark called me one Thursday evening and asked if I wanted to go get dinner on Friday, my heart skipped a tiny beat before I mentally told myself, “No, this isn’t it. You and Mark get dinner all the time. This is nothing new.” And then when he told me to “wear something nice” my heart leaped again, a little bigger this time, but I still shoved any proposal thoughts into the back of my mind. I wasn’t going to get let down again! But just the play it safe, I didn’t ask any questions and just pretended like him planning a nice dinner for us that required any kind of dressing up for no reason whatsoever was totally normal (which, it was not!).

To be continued….

Looking for "the one"

2009-10-13T07:46:00.006-05:00

What do you think would prove to be more difficult? Finding a fiance or finding a dress? Well let me tell you my friends, it might have taken me 23 years to find Mark, but it's going to take me at least as many dresses to find "the one."

Any girl who has known anyone who's gotten married has heard stories of dress shopping. Stories of friends who put on a dress in the store and suddenly angels started singing and trumpets started sounding because it was the one. They just knew. Their heart skipped a beat and the suddenly saw themselves walking down the aisle to their one and only wearing this most perfect dress.

I haven't found that yet. Haven't even come close, really. I've found plenty of could-be-the-one's, or good-enough-to-be-the-one's, but nothing that's making the world halt when I step out of the dressing room. After trying on at least thirty dresses and (are you surprised?) some tears of frustration, I leave you with.. the rejects.

My mom and my aunt came along on this round of hunting and we ended our day with some margaritas while I sulked about dresses and nothing being out there that I liked (that didn't cost three times what I can spend) and why oh why are weddings so expensive?? But a few days later, I'm ready to start again and have a new perspective on it all. I know my one is out there!

Wanted: Free Wi Fi

2009-10-04T12:17:00.003-05:00

I have a confession to make. For the past nine months I have been "borrowing" other people's wireless internet. When I got my new laptop last year, it was immediately super stealth at detecting wireless connections from anywhere and everywhere. Like as soon as I took it out of the box and turned it on, it was all "hello, I've found you an internet connection!" So earlier this year when I made the switch over to the iPhone and I was going to be paying an extra $30 a month on the cell phone bill, I wanted to find a place to cut that expense out. My choices were to either quit the gym or drop my internet provider. Well this was back in the day when I was actually still working out and I wasn't even using my internet anymore, yet continued to pay it on "good faith" every month. So I officially quite Time Warner and have been living blissfully internet bill free ever since. I had three neighbors who didn't have passwords on their wireless access, so I jumped around from the three of them and was home free, quite literally. Today, only one of those open networks is still available and it's been pretty spotty here lately and this entire weekend its been zilch. No connection.

I have been oh so lonely.

So I packed up my computer and all its cords this morning and sought out some free Wi Fi. Library? Boring. Starbucks? I don't even like coffee! Corner Bakery? Bingo! I snagged a back corner booth, ordered an oatmeal cookie and have access to not only the free Wi Fi, but an endless supply of Diet Coke refills! I may never leave here. Well, at least not until my battery runs out because I can't seem to find an outlet anywhere around here. In the meantime, I'm (finally) downloading the iPhone update (picture text messages! about time!) and getting my fill of wedding blogs that I have been so deprived of all weekend. And looking hardcore at wedding dresses because we are going to look on Wednesday! Me = stoked.

October!

2009-10-01T08:24:00.004-05:00

I LOVE October and have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival. As I was driving to work this morning it dawned on me that this would probably be my ideal month to get married in, except for the whole getting engaged in May and wanting more than a five month engagement.. well, and the whole college football rules our lives in the fall and between my Texas games, Mark's OSU games and my family's Tech games, we would never find a weekend that would make everyone happy! But I am excited to celebrate our future anniversary this month because it's finally really fall! (We celebrate the 10th of each month as our "future anniversary" because it's super fun and it makes the counting down to the wedding seem to go a little quicker, when every month there's a day to look forward to.) This month we'll be in Austin on the 10th for some UT football and a delayed engagement celebration with Miss Sadie Caplan.

October is also my official start of Operation Get My Bridal Booty Into Shape. My handy dandy wedding checklist recommends starting your workout regime eight months out, but since I am anticipating failing at this for awhile, I am going to go ahead and bump it back to nine months out. I certainly sent September out with a bang: we ate at Texas de Brazil on Tuesday and then had McDonalds TWICE for dinner last night. Seriously, we grabbed a burger around 7:00 and then hit it up again for a full blown meal a couple hours later. I checked the scale this morning and yeah.. it turns out its pretty easy to gain weight in a week. Let's see how tough losing it is!

To prove to you all that I am serious about this whole workout plan, I took the ultimate plunge and enrolled in a Boot Camp class that starts next month. It meets three times a week for six weeks and I am slightly terrified of it. I'm going to spend October getting ready for the pain that I know is coming (is it silly to work out in preparation for a work out?). It will end just in time for Christmas, where I'm sure I will promptly reverse all the good I did, but here's to hoping not!

October is also when wedding planning will finally really get kicked off! Yesterday Mark and I met up with the WP and her fave DJ. We went into it thinking we'd talk to the guy for 30 minutes, then maybe go check him out at a wedding later before deciding if we wanted to hire him. But, we ended up talking to him for an hour and a half and leaving with the feeling that he's our new BFF and asked him to go ahead and send over a contract because we were SOLD. He's just what we're looking for - not cheesy, totally normal, promising to build up the energy throughout the night and swearing he will not play Brick House or We are Family.

The WP gave us a fantastic calendar she made up for us mapping out what we need to be working on month by month. On the agenda for October (among some others): find a DJ (check!), look for a dress (more to come on that soon) and take our engagement pictures (so excited about this one!). Mark loved the calendar/To Do Lists (he loves a good list) and I was glad to call my mom with some specific tasks for us to start working on.

After our time with the DJ last night, we raced up to McKinney to meet with our sponsor couple from St. Gabriel's to start really discussing the results to our compatibility test. We covered the first four areas of the test and we actually scored a 100% on one of them: Friends and Interests. So Mark and I are pretty much in agreement that our friends all rock and we both feel totally good about each other's interests. It was really so interesting to look and see how our answers to certain questions differed and it really got us talking about some aspects of our relationship and communication styles that differ from each other. Nothing was a big surprise and the couple we are meeting with were really great about sharing their own experiences in their 20 year marriage and how they have learned to make their conflicting traits work well. I also had one of those "wow this is really happening" moments when they were reading a passage from the Bible about marriage and I started imagining being in the church on our wedding day, actually getting married.

We've got a lot coming up and I'm thrilled to get it all started!

Fives

2009-09-28T20:51:00.002-05:00

Five great things right now:

1. Gossip girl and a free Chickfila dinner (yay for Free Kids Meal coupons)
2. A memo from the Headmaster on a job well done
3. An official date on the calendar to officially go look at dresses
4 Freshly painted nails, with no smudges!
5. New fall boots, in the mail on their way to my feet

:)

Monday!!

2009-09-28T12:36:00.002-05:00

This morning when my alarm went off, I jumped out of bed. I am so. pyshed. that it is Monday! Why? Because this weekend is over!!

This weekend was my school's 50th Anniversary/New Building Dedication/Alumni Reunion. I worked for three days straight. I was really, really nervous about most if it, mainly the Alumni Reunion, because I was 100% solely in charge of it. If it ended up sucking, it all would have been back on me. But everything was fantastic. Even better than expected. It all went so smoothly and was really a lot of fun for everyone. I am just so relieved that it's all over now!

Along with a weekend of work I also ate complete crap for the past three days. Take a look:

Friday - First ever GSES Homecoming Football Game, complete with The Hamburger Man grilling up burgers for everyone.
Saturday - New building Dedication, Alumni Art Show and Carnival, with all you can eat FREE pizza (hello, three slices) hot dogs, chips, ice cream and snow cones
Saturday Night - My reunion party! I was silently crying two weeks ago when only 47 people had RSVP'ed. We ended up with over 200 there! And.. BBQ brisket, potato salad, rolls and pie. Yum.
Sunday Morning - Alumni Breakfast.. you know, sausage, bacon, croissants, cinnamon rolls, yum, yum, yum

Saturday afternoon you would think I would have crashed, but I forged on and went to meet Laura and her sister and mom to try on her bridesmaid dresses (adorable!) and then we all grabbed lunch at Corner Bakery and chatted for a while. Then it was off to meet my dad to go to an open house up at Ursuline, and then.... dinner at Uncle Julio's. By this point, I was beyond full, yet went ahead and filled up even more on chips, salsa and tacos.

I'm starting over in October. Something's gotta give here!

Wedding dress shopping.. next week!

Fail.

2009-09-24T19:56:00.002-05:00

I just made chocolate chip cookies, just so I could eat the cookie dough.

Some day, I really will start the wedding diet.

Getting it in Writing

2009-09-22T20:27:00.004-05:00

Over Labor Day, we trekked up to Abilene, Kansas for Mark's extended family reunion. Less than a week later, we'd made the papers up there with quite the extensive write-up on the gathering. I sent this to my parents to show them that I was famous in the great state of KS and my dad replied saying that seeing the word "fiance" in front of my name made it suddenly very "real." Well yes Dad, this is indeed real.

As you'll notice a few lines below me, I'm not going to be the first Amanda Neuschafer out there - his cousin has a daughter in college who bears the same great name. Mark's two little cousins who were there asked my with wide eyes, "are you going to be my cousin too??" There were pretty adorable and just might be in the running for some flower girls.

Where Were We?

2009-09-21T17:33:00.005-05:00

My mom called me yesterday to express that she is concerned that we've haven't really booked any vendors for the wedding yet. Well, we do have a pretty awesome photographer, a really creative florist, a guy who makes wedding cakes for $1.25 a slice (what, what!) and, of course, our fabulous WP. So what are we missing? Hmm. A caterer. A DJ. A "local band" my dad swears he can find for free. Rentals. Linens. Chairs. Silverware. Invitations. You know. Everything else. Oh and also, the dress. A pretty big one as well.

We are trying to find a time when my mom and I are both free to start checking some of these things off the list. This is proving to be pretty difficult for the entire month of October. Between the Texas/OSU football games we're going to and the Tech games my parents are going to, we've got nothing. So I think we are just both going to take off a random Monday or Tuesday, invite Mark's mom to come down and go look for dresses. Then I need to get the WP and me up to Muenster to meet with the florist to start deciding what and how many flowers we want. Next week we are finally meeting with that DJ, so that might get crossed off soon too.

Last week, Mark and I started our marriage preparation classes with St. Gabriel's in McKinney. It's Mark's church now and will be our church once we get married, so we opted to do all the prep work there, as opposed to driving back and forth to Sacred Heart for the next several months. Back when we first got engaged and were trying to pick a date, we had to go meet with Fr. Ken in person before he would even open his calendar to give us his open Saturdays next summer. So we ran up there one weekend to get the ball rolling. As many probably know, there's a lot of prep work required if you want to get married in a Catholic church. Depending on what parish you want to use, there are a series of things you must do before the wedding. Fr. Ken started right into us, telling us that in his experience of marrying hundreds of couples there are three factors that greatly increase your odds of staying married: 1. Both being at least 21 (check!), 2. Having dated for at least six months (umm hello, check x 5!), and 3. Participate in some sort (any sort) of marriage preparation, whether in the church or elsewhere (working on that check!). First up for us in the marriage prep category is meeting with a sponsor couple.

I was actually excited about starting to meet with a couple from Mark's church. I like meeting new people and was pumped to get this process started. So last week we braved the thunderstorms and drove over to the snazzy part of McK and met Mike and Denise, married 21 years and parents of two high school boys (not to mention their fabulous house on the golf course with the infinity edge pool and television as big as an entire wall in my apartment!). They were so nice and excited to meet Mark and me (and to hear some wedding details!) and were super easy to talk to right off the bat. As part of the initial meeting, Mark and I had to each take a "compatibility" test that included 156 statements that we were supposed to either agree with, disagree with or mark as undecided. Denise told us to be totally honest and not put down what we thought the other wanted us to say. Then they send off this test to some place that scores us and we spend the next five sessions together talking about things that will be strengths and weaknesses in our marriage. I'm pretty sure I know where the "red flags" are going to come up. Let's just say I know Mark agreed with the question about me using the "silent treatment" when I'm upset about something. Oh Lordy. But I am looking forward to going back over to their house next week. We're ready for the challenge!

Next up? Well, I'm working this entire weekend, but by noon on Sunday I'll be free again. I'm meeting another B2B to try on bridesmaid dresses that afternoon and then my parents are going to come up to Dallas to run some errands and grab dinner. In the meantime it's t-minus four days until my huge alumni reunion weekend at work... AHH!

Rain = Sleepy

2009-09-14T17:10:00.004-05:00

Oh Monday. You always come too quickly. I had a nice, lazy, rainy weekend and it was just what I needed. I babysat Friday night and since nothing was on TV, I browsed through their DVR list and ended up watching the pilot for Vampire Diaries on the CW. It was pretty fabulous. It was Gossip Girl meets Twilight meets True Blood. Lots of high school drama, some teen vampire crushes, and bloody attacks in the the forest. Pretty good mix! Vampires are so trendy right now, so I figured I'll stick with it a little longer. Oh and speaking of GG, how excited are we about the premiere tonight?!

Three hours later and $30 richer, I went to bed early Friday night. When I woke up Saturday morning I knew I needed to clean the apartment. We've been out of town for so many weekends that everything has gotten greatly neglected. I got on the ball and ended up filing away mail, dusting the ceiling fans, washing the bed skirt and scrubbing the bathtub -- all kinds of things I usually skip over. My mom called me three times that morning from the Muenster City Wide Garage Sale - she and my sister go tup at 7 AM to hit up the sales and called me hourly to report on all their good finds. We are stocking up on candles and class vases for the wedding and she apparently found a lot of loot. I need to get back up there soon to check it all out, and to meet with the florist.

Last week Mark and I met with Kristen, our fabulous WP/BFF, and the three of us worked out the dreaded budget. It's good to finally have some numbers though, so we can move forward with some sort of game plan. Next up on the list is hiring a DJ. Kristen pretty much already has us sold on a guy she knows, but we're going to meet with him next week to make sure he's what we're looking for and in our price range. My mom has really been on the ball lately - she's booked us with the cake guy in town and even got the piano player at church to put us on his calendar. Everyone keeps telling us to call them in the spring, but at least we know they've got us on their books!

Saturday night I went to a couples shower for a friend who's getting married in a few weeks. We watched football and sipped on champagne while the bride and groom opened heir gifts, then Mark and I snuck out early. Sunday morning I watched a lot of House Hunters and then met up with Christina for lunch at the Galleria. She talked me into her five must have items for fall, so we're hunting out the best deals on gray handbags and brown boots. I've been so good for the past few months and NOT SHOPPING, but I couldn't resist a good sale and a 30% off coupon from ATL. I went in for a shirt I knew they had marked down, but came out with an additional two sweaters and some little camis. I couldn't help myself! It had been too long. I'm back on my no shopping diet now though. And avoiding the malls...

I headed up to McKinney after lunch to go check out Mark's new u-verse and have pot roast for dinner (we love the crock pot!). I got there around 2:30 and by 3:00 the (brand new) cable was frozen and the internet was down. Six hours later it was still out, so I missed the MTV awards and Mark missed all the late day football. He called up AT&T and chewed them out pretty good, so they are apparently coming back over this evening to get it up and running again. You'd be surprised how dull a rainy evening can be with no cable or internet! We actually ended up watching Titanic on VHS.. Mark's idea! So it wasn't a total loss. And for someone who swears up and down he's only seen Titanic once in his entire life, he sure did know a lot of the lines by heart :)

The weekend came and went too fast, but we've once again got a pretty open schedule ahead of us this week. I love not traveling! We're home every weekend between now and mid-October. It's nice to know that things are going to slow down for a bit.

Extreme Makeover: Company's Coming Edition.

2009-08-12T10:53:00.002-05:00

This week has been pretty hectic, as we prepare for our Engagement Party this weekend, and for the many, many friends we have coming in town for the occasion. There's nothing like fifteen of your closest friends coming to stay the weekend to really make you spruce things up around the house! I realized that Mark has really only been using about one third of his house - his room, bathroom, living room and kitchen. The two guest rooms, guest bathroom, dining room and second living area have been sadly neglected. He has a roommate in one of the extra bedrooms, but the other one is just shut up with a bare mattress and a dresser in it, never touched unless someone actually is going to sleepover, in which case he puts his old high school bedding on the bed. Booooring.

We finally finished painting the kitchen last week, and then I brought up my (much nicer than Mark's) desk and set up his computer in one corner of it. The old desk? Off to Goodwill! Or, just the garbage. It's pretty bad. Next we tackled the guestroom. We painted it and even sanded and repainted the baseboards. I hit up Ikea, where for a whopping $35 I got a comforter, duvet set and new sheets. Ten bucks at Stein Mart for a bed skirt and the pillows from my couch at my place finished off the bed. When I officially move in, I'll bring my bed frame for it as well. I snagged some stuff from around Mark's house for a few decorative touches, and we've got a guest room!

Next up, hallway. Sounds boring, but we really wanted to use a burnt orange in the house somewhere, but couldn't bear to paint an entire bedroom that color, and the great room/kitchen-living areas-dining room are all pretty open, so any wall in that section of the house would be visible from everywhere, and would have to match everything. So we painted the little hallway that goes off to the two guest rooms and second bathroom an almost-UT burnt orange. I LOVE it. You can just see it peeping out from the main part of the house, and it looks fabulous.

So now we're down to the guest bath. I went to stare at the 3,000 paint swatches at Home Depot last night (sans Mark - he told me he trusted me to pick out ANY color) and came back with a sample of a nice golden tan. Harvest Wheat I think it was called. I put some up on the wall and we both agreed it looks good enough! So that's the last of the rooms we need to paint before Friday. Whew! So far all the colors we've picked are warm, earthy tones and I am just loving how they are all coming together. I can see myself living in this house.. it feels like it's transforming into our home. Mark commented as we labored over all the paint this week, "we're making this house a home." It's amazing what a little color on the walls and some strategic rearranging can do!

Keeping You on Your Toes

2009-08-04T20:23:00.003-05:00

I decided to switch up my header, just to spice things up. This is a picture of my parents' "herd" of longhorns, up at our house in Muenster. Are you in the market for a longhorn? Feel free to give my folks a call and arrange to bring one of these guys home to your backyard. Check 'em out at Double N Cattle. (Or, looking for a website designer? My sister is your gal).

This past weekend we debated switching up our wedding venue and date. My mom found a ranch that hosts private events about 20 miles from the church we'll be getting married in, so she went to check it out with my dad and sisters. She calls me Friday morning and insists that this is THE place we've been looking for and that we must book it right now, but they aren't available on our date. But they do have a Saturday in June open. So I call the priest. The photographer. The WP. The future in-laws. (All while in the car driving out to the lake for the weekend.) And everyone is free on the June date. So we decide to go check the place out when we get back into town on Sunday. It was a very charming, very rustic ranch complete with some goats and a miniature horse. They had a ballroom that had the right look, but it was just too small. Even though the owner (who could not have been any nicer) swore they can set it up for 270, I just couldn't imagine us all crammed in that space. So we decided to forgo it and stick with what we've got. I'm relived because the idea of switching everything and notifying everyone already involved was nerve racking. But I am also bummed, because the ranch and the people who owned it were fabulous.

Well, Gus is demanding my attention. He's pretty cute, so I guess I'll go play with him for a while :)

Organize in Style

2009-08-03T22:04:00.002-05:00

I love organization. I am a pro at making lists and crossing things off as I complete them. I love taking notes and making files. I once spent an entire morning at work reprinting the labels on all my files at work, so they would all the the same color and in the same font. So it's no surprise that when I got engaged, I wasted no time starting my Wedding Binder. Mark and I each snuck home some sheet protectors from work and he snagged me a big white binder. I spent the next couple of months filling it with pictures I had torn out of magazines and printed off wedding sites online. I got some dividers and made some sections, but it has already become such a mess that I've already abandoned it. It has no rhyme or reason anymore and filled with a lot of pictures and colors that I'm not even considering anymore.

Today I stumbled upon Russell and Hazel and fell in love in about 3 seconds. Their free PDF files of every list you could possibly need as you plan your wedding are pretty fabulous. Their binders and paper products are quite pricey, but I couldn't resist the black and white patterned binder and ordered it, telling myself that every bride deserves a nice Wedding Binder and this one will of course keep me right on track with all my planning. I cannot wait until it arrives in the mail!

Part 2

2009-07-26T20:13:00.004-05:00

So are you all on pins and needles about my quest for the perfect dress? I had every intention of wrapping that one up quickly, but then life got in the way. It tends to do that! Just so we can move on to other topics, here is the abbreviated conclusion!

First a back-story. In 2007, I was attending a wedding of one of Mark's best friends. This was maybe the second or third time I had ever hung out with his college crowd, and I was more nervous than usual about the wedding and making sure all his friends liked me. I wanted a new dress to wear for it, so I started out on a hunt. My biggest problem was price - I realllly didn't want to spend more than about $50 on anything new, so I was looking for a good sale. As I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that fit in my budget, Mark started tagging along and offered to split the cost of a dress if it was too pricey. We found nothing. We must have gone to four different malls and it was zilch everywhere. I was getting discouraged and wanting to give up and just find something in my closet, but Mark made me forge on. Out of sheer desperation, we wandered into the BCBG section of Macy's. This was really a bad idea because let's face it, we didn't stand a chance of finding an inexpensive dress there!

I had been bypassing any dress that was over $100. Mark kept trying to get me to try them on, but I wouldn't even let him spend that much on me, so I refused to give them a chance. But by this point, after days of looking and countless stores, I humored him and tried on about three different dresses, all $200+. It was at this time that we found The. Perfect. Dress. It was navy blue with gold detailing and it was the perfect amount of both dressy and casual and it was just beautiful. They didn't even have my size, but I tried on one size smaller than I usually wear and was even able to zip it up. The sales lady assured me it fit perfectly and did her best to talk me into it. Yes, I loved it. Mark loved it. He said he would buy it. But at $250 i refused. He kept insisting that it was a great dress and totally worth the price and he didn't mind getting it for me. Now I'm all for letting him spoil me a little every now and then, but that just seemed absurd. I'm not the kind of gal that would ever spend that much on a dress. So we left it behind and I sulked about it quietly for a good month or so.

Ok, back to the current story. I'm searching for a dress for our party and the mall has failed me. I head up to McKinney after work with Mark one day and we stop at the outlets in Allen to see what they have. We park at JCrew and proceed to make our way around the entire shopping center (in the 100 degree heat no less!) and go into store after store after store. We give everything a chance. If it looks like it sells dresses, we go in. I think I tried on a total of three total and none are even remotely what I'm looking for. No one has summer dresses! We made our way down the last row of stores and Mark wanted to go into Brooks Brothers. It's then that I spotted the BCBG store, which I had forgotten was tucked away in the back corner of the mall. We went in, felling hopeful.

The store is arranged by color and we worked our way around, pulling more and more dresses from the racks for me to try on. This one's cute! And so is this one! I remarked how much I loved BCBG and Mark commented that he knew that because remember that one dress? I stopped mid rack as it came back to me. The perfect dress. I told him I was surprised he even remembered that dress, much less what brand it was! I even joked that maybe it had made its way to the outlets by now and that we should keep our eyes out for it. We worked our way around the store and finally made our way to the blue section. I sarcastically told Mark to look for it as I was sliding some dresses across the rack when Bam. There it was. The perfect dress. Navy with the gold details. Marked down significantly and - the entire store was an additional 50% off! And it was in my size! I grabbed it in disbelief and added it to the growing stack of dresses to try on.

I must have tried about 12 dresses and they were all fantastic. BCBG, how I love you. The navy dress was not at all what I was looking for for our party - it was much too fancy. But I found an adorable little strapless summer dress that couldn't be more perfect. I walked out of the dressing room with this dress and the navy one. I told Mark that I felt like God had put this dress back into my life and I was not going to walk away from it twice! So I bought them both. Or rather, Mark bought me the navy blue one after all, two years after we first found it in the mall.

So now, all this girl needs is some great shoes to wear with my new party dress! Whew!

Always There When You Don't Need It, Never Around When You Do

2009-07-14T16:16:00.004-05:00

Ladies, I know you know all about this phenomenon/curse. It applies to all kinds of things - shoes, jewelry, books, jeans, bras, anything. For me, it is always the same thing. Dresses. If I am just strolling around the mall, perhaps looking for a gift or a new strapless bra or even tagging along with Mark while he shops for new work shirts, I will without a doubt find tons of cute dresses - sundresses, cocktail dresses, maxi dresses, formal dresses - and they will most likely be on sale for a decent price. Whenever I don't need them, have zero events planned that require a new dress or just plain can't justify spending the money, I am surrounded by many adorable little dresses. I'm not even seeking them out, I just find them. Sometimes I even try them on and ponder wistfully if I should buy them. There's always going to be something that comes up that needs a new dress, right? But, more often than not, if I don't have a reason or event or purpose for the dress, I just leave it and mentally remind myself to check that store the next time I need a new cute dress.

Well those days inevitably always come up, usually a lot quicker than you think they will. Weddings are the obvious events. I can always wear a dress in my closet to the many, many weddings I attend each year, but it's fun to get a new one every once in a while. Whenever I'm a bridesmaid (4 times so far, with 2 more on the calendar), I love to get a new dress for the rehearsal dinner, since it's my one chance during the weekend to wear my own sassy little number. Weddings are great excuses to buy yourself something new. So now that I'm the bride, I'm practically giddy with the idea of all the little splurges I get to make on myself this year.

Next month, my aunt and uncle are hosting an Engagement Party for Mark and me. We've invited everyone in our wedding party, as well as our closest friends and family. For the past couple weeks, once the invitations went out, I've been looking forward to shopping for a new dress to wear to the party. I've even been delaying it to an extent, because I didn't want to buy something too far before the party and then have the novelty of the new dress wear off before my big debut as the Bride to Be. But this past weekend, I could wait no longer. On the way home from the bridal show on Sunday, I stopped at the Galleria to hit up all my favorite spots: Nordstrom, JCrew, Zara, Banana, Macy's and any other stores that drew my attention. Well, I spent over two hours at the mall, going to EVERY SINGLE STORE and could find nothing. It's that weird time of year where, even though it's the middle of July and 105 degrees outside, all the stores are bringing in their fall sweaters. All the cute summer dresses were put on the clearance racks weeks ago with only slim pickings left. I grew more and more distraught as I left store after store without even a remote possibility of a winner.

That night I started to panic. What if there aren't any summer dresses out there anymore? I could wear one that's in my closet already, but that's no fun. And as the guest of honor (well, co-guest of honor) I wanted something really special. The party is a casual, backyard BBQ kind-of event (although we're serving Mexican and not BBQ) and we aren't expecting people to dress up (plus it will be August in Texas, still super hot!). I wanted a cute sundress or something short and summer-y. What if I couldn't find one?! I plotted to hit up all the little boutiques in town after work each afternoon, determined to leave no stone unturned.

Well fear not my friends. I did not only find the perfect dress, I found THREE perfect dresses. And I bought all three of them. Stay tuned.

Reasons I Hate Living in an Apartment: #712

2009-07-12T21:39:00.003-05:00

The people who are currently living above me are loud. Really loud. Are they walking around wearing scuba flippers up there? I can hear them pounding around up there all hours of the day and night. Are the constantly dragging very large pieces of furniture across the floor? Hammering nails into the walls at 2 AM? Running laps around all 700 square feet of living space? I've started either keeping the TV turned up very loud or having my iPod plugged into my ears at all times. Which means I miss a lot of phone calls, but at least I can choose what is blasting in my ears.

End rant.

My weekend of absolutely zero plans other than laying around and perhaps painting Mark's kitchen didn't quite go as planned. Friday afternoon Mark's best friend from college called to let us know he was in town for a wedding and wanted to hang out. We were already discussing making dinner at home and heading up to Home Depot to look at paint colors when this little call threw a wrench into the whole plan. We still hit up the paint department, stared at the 1,000 different squares of color for about 20 minutes, finally blindly picked two and got samples, took them home and put them up in the walls and then Mark mowed the lawn while I feel asleep. Since we didn't hook up with his friend and his GF that night, we made it a point to see them Saturday. They were staying at the Gaylord out in Grapevine, so we met them up there and spent about six hours at the hotel's FABULOUS pool with a beach bag full of illegal cans of beer ($4.50 per drink at the bar? no thank you). We left with great tans and no desire whatsoever to pick back up the paintbrushes (although we do have about 5 different patches of colors on the walls currently: picking a color is so hard!) We went to bed early with plans of hitting up the paint department early this morning to makeup for our lost time.

But then, this morning when I checked my email, my friend and fellow Bride to Be had emailed to see if I wanted to go to the Dallas Bridal Show today. Woo! So I sent Mark on his way and told him he could paint the kitchen ANY color he wanted at this point, and I met Laura for lunch and an afternoon of DJ's, Latin Cover Bands, Cake samples galore, balloon arches, veils, free drawings for a wedding day makeover and about 280 different chair covers. Whew. It was really fun and also quite exhausting. By the last row of booths, our bags of giveaways and brochures were so heavy that we had the drag them out and we avoided eye contact with every vendor we passed. I did manage to sign up for a "free" facial from a Mary Kay consultant, create a registry at Bed, Bath and Beyond (with nothing on it yet?), and enter for a chance to win a Bachelorette Party at... get ready... Texas Motor Speedway. Oh joy. Laura informed me on our way out that she was giving everyone a fake phone number. Hmm. Smart.

But really, the bridal show was fun. I felt like I was a part of this exclusive "Bride to Be" club and like all the girls there had that same happy engagement glow. Plus, I did find some really cute bridal boutiques that I hadn't even heard of before, many of who I for sure want to go check out for dresses. And the lady at the LuLu's booth even snuck Laura and I one of her coveted coupons, even though she swore they were only for referrals. I think we smooth talked her pretty good :)

When I talked to Mark earlier tonight he hadn't made any paint decisions yet. He figured I needed to come be a part of the final decision. But one thing we do know - our little kitchen project will involve some chalk board paint. Stay tuned for that one!

365

2009-07-10T12:19:00.004-05:00

One year from today, I will be GETTING MARRIED!!!!!! I am so excited that this one year mark has already come. Time really is flying by. Now I better get the ball rolling on the wedding planning. I can't use the "it's still over a year away" excuse any longer. My WP BFF is going up to Muenster with me in a couple weeks so we can start coming up with our grand design plan for the ever-so-dull church hall. We found out last week that we cannot hang anything from the ceilings in the hall (even though when we booked, I specifically asked if we could and was told yes, grr) so we're having to get even more creative now. My good friend (and b-maid) Stephanie called me late last night with her own personal solution to this dilemma, something she saw on the Martha Stewart Weddings cover.

Balloons! Huge balloons with little lights inside them, to make them glow. It could work. I'm going to look into it, along with WP BFF. Another option is to build some sort of HUGE arbor/canopy/tent to put over the dance floor, and hang lights and lanterns from it. My dad assures me that he will build me ANYTHING, so it's also on the list.

Tonight Mark and I are going to celebrate our Pre-Wedding Anniversary and let the countdown officially begin!

From Flab to Fab, Update: FAIL

2009-07-08T16:17:00.003-05:00

Ok. So maybe this will start up NEXT week. With Mark's brother still in town, this was just not working out this week. I'd much rather tag along to dinners out and spend the evenings watching DVR'ed episodes of Conan with the boys, rather than hit up the gym. Sigh.

From Flab to Fab, Part 1

2009-07-05T19:58:00.002-05:00

We had a slight change of plans this past weekend. Much to our dismay, our lake trip was canceled Friday morning due to an emergency in the family who owns the house we were heading to (all is well now). So here we were, me, Mark and his brother (fresh off the plane from across the ocean) with five days and zero plans. Everything turned out great and we had a nice holiday weekend, just not on a boat in the sun like we had originally planned. We saw fireworks twice, grilled out, spent about 12 hours at the pool, ate way too much, had ice cream EVERY day, went to three different malls, watched a lot of TV and overall had a fun and relaxing time together. Tomorrow I am still off work, so I'm meeting up with my sister to wrap up the long weekend in style. We might hit up the bridesmaid dress quest again, if we are so inclined. Or, we might just sit at the pool all day... again :)

Now, on to my newest mission: Flab to Fab. This is a phrase that is all over the wedding blogs, describing brides' quest to lose weight and tone up for their weddings. Because let's be honest, what is better motivation than you in a big white dress and photos that you'll look back on for your entire lifetime to drop a few pounds? I know I've been telling myself for years that the day I got engaged was going to be the day I signed up for a personal trainer and really hit the gym hardcore. Yet, It's been two months since I've got the ring on my finger and I'm still just skating along with my usual half-ass working out and eating terribly. My excuse? The wedding is still so very far away. But honestly, why should I not turn it up now and get myself in gear for a year of celebrating, showers, parties and general engagement bliss? I've got a lot of things between now and the big day that I am going to use for short term goals to work towards, starting with our engagement party on August 15. After that, we've got our engagement photos in October, the holiday (why not be super skinny for the holidays, right?!), I'll be a bridesmaid in February, we've got another wedding in May and then BAM it will be crunch time for my turn in the long dress and veil.

First short term goal - the engagement party in six weeks. I made myself a nice little calendar to check the days off and admire my sure to be success as I do P90X, the 30 Day Shred, run on the treadmill, lift weights in front of the television, walk during my lunch break, ANYTHING. I'll post update here to hold myself accountable. Feel free to pester me and post negative comments when I blog about eating ice cream every day or sitting around watching Say Yes to the Dress reruns for the fifth time, instead of heading to spin class on Thursday evenings.

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

2009-06-28T19:10:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-06-25T19:50:00.003-05:00

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.