Countdown has begun

Paradise. A beach. Unlimited food and drinks. Lots and lots of pictures like this of the beautiful sunset in a tropical place.

The honeymoon countdown has begun. Haha, just kidding. Really I guess we can say it's the "wedding countdown". I added an official countdown ticker at the bottom of the blog to keep me on track. As if the date creeping up on the calendar and the fact that I have every weekend planned out almost to the hour up until the big day is not a big enough reminder!

But I am very excited for the wedding and all the friends & family that will be there and the festivies that will encompass that weekend, and of course, to get married...the overall purpose of the day! But I am VERY VERY excited to get on a plane at 7:30AM Sunday morning (yes, you read that right) and head off to Mexico with my new husband. What is getting me through the stress, the chaos, the lists that go on and on, the decisions that still have to be made, the phone calls that have to be made, the remaining details to decide on....is the fact that at noon on Sunday, April 11 I will be A) Married to Jimmy and B) sitting on a beach in Cancun with a drink in my hand with not a care in the world for 6 whole days. No wedding planning, no work, no house renovations, no Pi Phi stuff, no responsibilities...

Paradise....here I come. Only 45 more days until we get there.........

Being a dog mom

Monday night, Willy started acting funny. He was whining non-stop and just standing at the foot of the couch looking at Milly. Then he would jump up on the couch and start licking her. Licking her face, her back, and then her bottom. So that's when I got up to see what was going on. And I looked at her butt- there was puss and a cut!!! OMG! Poor girl! No wonder she was down and out....but it was amazing how upset Willy was too. But I can always seem to count on him to clue me in when Milly doesn't feel well or she has a cut (he was the one that "showed" me the big big cut Milly had on her neck when she & Daisy got in a fight. I would have never found it because it was buried in fur....but Willy was licking it so much to help her feel better. She ended up having to get 5 staples and wearing a cone....). So then I was so upset and carried my poor little baby around all night and Willy followed around in tow, making sure she was ok. What a nice dog "husband" he is.

I immediately called the vet the following morning and got an appointment for that afternoon. I just took her because I knew it wouldn't be a good vet experience, while I usually take them both because they don't like to be separated. Willy was very upset he couldn't go, but I promised him we'd be back soon! So we get there and sure enough, her anal gland had ruptured/burst, whatever you want to call it, through the skin. POOR THING!! How painful. That explains how lethargic she was and how she pretty much stopped eating. So they had to drain it, which was very painful for her...but the worst part of the appointment was getting her nails cut- she hated that! We left with a drained wound, steroid shot, some antiboitics, and specific instructions to apply a wet cloth to her wound 2 times a day to keep the skin moist. I do think she felt much better after, which is great!!!

But as I was driving home, I kept thinking about what a big responsibility having dogs is and how I really had no idea until I got them about a year and a half ago. Not only all the responsibilites required on a daily basis, but also when they get sick, etc. So crazy!! I almost feel like a new parent dog class should be offered before you buy or adopt to just get you up to speed, similar to a pre-marriage class. Because it's so overwhelming. But I guess it's kind of that way with kids too- just have to learn as you go. Anyways, I also realized on my way home what a crazy dog mom I am. Because I'm so cautious and paticular about things. But I feel like my other friends that have dogs are crazy dog moms too. So I made a list of my ways I know I'm a crazy dog mom. What are yours???

My take on it goes like this: You know you're a crazy dog mom when you the following occur:

1) "Hello chi chi, hello mamasita" and proceed to drop everything and sit on the ground immediately when you walk in the door
2) When your anerexic dog refuses to eat (really, some days I think she is), you sit on the floor in the kitchen and feed her dog food with your hands...one...little...dog...food...bite...at...a...time and don't even blink an eye that you just wasted 20 minutes of your life doing it. She needs to eat!
3) You insist on your roommate taking 15 different pictures of the same pose for your family Christmas card because you want one where all 3 of your dogs look cute. Because you are delusional in the fact that is possible
4) You post polls on your blog regarding your pet's attire for your wedding because you want to make the right decision. However, you don't blink an eye when deciding on the actual human being's attire in your wedding
5) You take your dogs to the vet every time you think they are maybe sick or don't "feel" good or have a cut...because you can't imagine if they died.
6) You send your friend an email saying "She has a little cut and is having trouble pooping."
7) You buy your dogs clothes, toys, anything to make them happy every time you go to the store, just because
8) You think the "raw hide bar" at PetCo down the street is the coolest invention ever!
9) You tell people one of the reasons you moved out of a condo and into a house is to give your dogs a nice back yard and a "better life"
10) When you take your dog to the vet and the vet tells you that in addition to giving her antibiotics, you will need to put a warm washcloth on her butt every morning and night to keep the "wound" open and skin around it soft. Then he says putting a little Epsom salt on the rag helps too, only if you have some. And you respond, "Oh yeah, I have some from last year when I had to soak Willy's cyst on his foot 2 times a day. I learned quickly I had to do that in the bathtub because he got water all over the kitchen floor because he didn't like it." Then you realize that yes, you really did sit in the bathtub, fully clothed, 2 times a day for 15 min at a time, soaking your dogs foot in a salt water and that didn't seem to phase you.......and neither does holding a warm washcloth to your dogs butt two times a day. You do what it takes to get it done! Stay up a little later, get up a little earlier, so you can make them feel better because seeing them sad and not feeling well absolutely breaks your heart!
11) One of the happiest times of your day is when you get home and they greet you with more excitement than most people show you in a week. And then they give you that look when they are snuggling with you that says "you're my favorite dog mom ever and I love you!" and you are oh so happy :)

As crazy as I may seem, gotta love these dogs and how they make the world (and me) a happier place!

If you have a dog, what do they do to make you oh-so-happy? If you want a dog, get one! Haha :)

Another dog video.....

And....I broke down and bought a new camera. I really did "need" one because I feel like I should be able to document our wedding events (i.e. showers, bachelorette party, etc). This one has video in it too (which yes, I know most cameras now do, but my ghetto one didn't). Which means.....more video fun and documentation of Jimmy and I's oh so exciting life. Which entails making up songs about our dogs. This is about how Willy eats poop. I know, it's gross. But it's hilarious. What a great voice he has :)

Kindness of Strangers

I love those events or things that happen in life that make you realize that there are good people in the world. People that will go out of their way for perfect strangers to help them out or make their day a little bit better. There are two recent events that made me very happy because they were unnecessary acts of kindness.

1) Mailing out wedding invitations comes with a mix of emotions. These range from excitement that your wedding is getting close, relief that the invitations are out the door, and anxiety...because you realize now that is done....you have 17 billion other things to do before the big day and you start to freak out. So after the invites go out, the RSVP cards start coming in, which is fun! You see who is able to make it and then you is not...but the other day, I got an unexpected letter in the mail, along with a large bundle of green envelopes. It was a letter, from a lady that received a wedding invitation that was addressed to one of my dad's cousins in California and it looks like we had the incorrect address. She wrote me a personal letter, beginning with, "Ms Bruns, first of all congratulations on your upcoming wedding!" and then going into detail how she opened up the invitation, not looking at the name on the envelope and commented on how nice the invites were and how sorry she was that she didn't look first! But that she put everything back together and took the reassembled invitation to the post office so they could send it to the correct address. I literally was reading the letter and almost dropped it in shock. What a nice and wonderful and thoughtful person. Not only did she forward the letter to the correct address, but she wrote me a letter to ensure that I knew it didn't get to the correct person initially. In my opinion she went absolutely above and beyond what the normal person would have done if they received an invitation in their mail box in error! I just thought that it was so nice---there is a thank you note in the mail on the way to California with her name on it. So nice, so sweet, and makes me love people like her!

Here is a picture of the letter she wrote me!



2) Runaway dog, saved by my main man, JC (Jimmy). One Tuesday night after our marriage class, he was headed back to his parents house after dropping me off at my parents house (where my dogs were). After I was already back at our house, getting ready to go to sleep, I get a phone call with him and he's yelling and semi out of breath.."Brittany---I just saved a dog!! Oh my gosh!". He then goes into details about how he was driving up Pflumm and there was a little dog (about 35-35 lbs) that was running across that busy road. Jimmy said he saw him, but figured he would find his way home...but then he felt bad and turned back around to try and get him. When he did, he saw him almost get hit by a car. He was really upset because he thought he was hit, but luckily he wasn't---and Jimmy went after him. He tried to coax him in the car, but was afraid at first and kept running away (hmmm...sounds like Toby). Finally Jimmy did get him in the car and called the 800 number for pet finder on his collar. They said they would contact the owner and then the owner called Jimmy. The owner said he must have gotten out of the backyard and they met for the exchange. The owner was very thankful, of course. As Jimmy's telling me this story he's just saying how happy he was to be able to save this dog's life and he can only hope that someone else would do the same for our dogs....particularly Toby, as he takes a little more effort to track down :) But I hung up the phone a few minutes later, just thinking how nice of a thing that was to do by going out of his way to pick up that dog and return him home. And I can only hope that people look at that as an example for random acts of kindness :)

Overall, I just love remembering and witnessing these random acts of kindness. It's so easy to get so wrapped up and upset about the mean things people do and say...and I can let those drag me down. But overall, when I remember these things, I realize that there are 2 different types of people out there. One type that lives for random acts of kindness and truly does love their neighbors as they love themselves. The second, just the opposite...and I know that at this point in my life, I realize how important is to surround myself with the first type of people and am thankful for those in my life right now!!!

Goal this week: Perform a random act of kindness each day :)

Stop calling me!!!

For all you past/present/future brides out there, I'm not sure how many wedding/bridal fairs you attended during your engagement (or if you even did), but I attended ONE. And it was awful and I hated it. Yes, I said it. However, I might have liked it more had I been in the VERY early planning process so I would see the wide array of vendors available...but I went later in the process. All I had left was 2 vendors I was looking for: Videographer & Hair/make up. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have now never gone to the show or especially paid for 2 tickets had I known what it was going to be like and that I ended up finding my remaining 2 vendors elsewhere. But...I had no idea what exactly a bridal fair thing entailed and this is the one time in my life I'll be planning a wedding, so I kind of felt like I had to go and experience it. Then develop my opinions.

If you have never been (dragged) to one, let me fill you in on what it is exactly. A HUGE room. With LOTS of vendor table everywhere. You walk around aisle by aisle passing by caterers with food samples, photographers with pictures they took, videographers with videos, DJs, florists, travel agents, real estate agents......and the list goes on and on and on. Everyone wanting your business and handing you 50,000 sheets of paper that you are just going to throw away. Now, all those people I didn't really mind that much. It was fun to look at pictures and videos, sample food, look through pamphlets with pictures from vacation spots around the world.....but then we came to one booth. Which I now call, "the booth of doom". The Direct Buy booth. What is direct buy? Some membership thing you sign up for get discounts off of home stuff and the stuff is at a lower than retail price. As Jimmy and I are always looking for fun ways to spruce up our house and they "sold" me to sign their sheet because "you can win $50,000!" never sounded to me like it wasn't going to happen for real. I signed my name, gave them my phone number, and continued browsing.

Next, we come up to what I call "the booth of doom 2". Celebrity China booth. "Sign up and you could be chosen to win free toasting glasses!" was how they got me. I mean, sure, why not? I hadn't even thought about the fact that we would need toasting glasses (duh!) so now I can potentially get them for free...sure here's my name and phone number.

The next week, booth of doom 2 called me and told me that we **WON** the drawing and asked me what time would work for Jimmy & I to come in and sit through a 45 minute demonstration on waterless, greaseless cookware. I confirmed a time and thought that was it. Then I tell my mom, she informs me that they are trying to make us spend thousands of dollars on cookware and/or china. I don't believe her. We go, they demonstrate and show off their stuff, I fall in love and end up spending thousands of dollars, but we did get 2 free toasting glasses, as promised. Haha, just kidding. I didn't really buy the cookware! What a rip off!! I did fall in love with the cookware and then went and found it online and bought it for thousands of dollars less. However, apparently they do not frequently update their **WINNING** data base because later that week they called me 5 more times, telling me that we won. I kind of yelled saying that we already came in.

Now booth of doom 1 didn't call for a while after- but when they eventually got to our names on the list, they started calling and wouldn't stop. I didn't answer, but they never stopped. I finally answered and they gave their talk about how we just need to come in and check out their showroom and we can win fabulous prizes, including that $50,000 they promised me like months ago that I never got. So I said, fine send me some stuff. They sent it, we set up a time to go, I did research on how much a membership costs, I decided I didn't want to go, Jimmy got sick, we didn't go and I called to cancel. CANCEL. Like meaning, I don't want you to call me ANYMORE. They continue to call me, at least 7 times a day. From 2 different numbers, one is 913 area code and the other is 816. It is now probably the most annoying thing in my life and I'm not sure what person decided that a great way to get a customer is to piss them off..but it's not working for me. So STOP CALLING ME, DIRECTBUY. I don't want a membership, I don't want this free stuff that you promise and I'll never see.

Which brings me now to my greatest find ever. Pure genius!! I would say, these situations in which these people will not stop calling me, have caused me to be a "pissed off bride". So one day, while checking out Weddingbee, I found this website: Pissed off bride. Funniest things I've ever read. Please, now go to that site and read and laugh and read and laugh and read and realize how ridiculous and crazy this whole wedding process and industry really is and what it does to people, families, and innocent bystanders. But seriously, whoever invented this site---brilliant!! This post that I just wrote is due to the hilarious posts on this site that rant about annoying wedding vendors and how they contact you 24/7. True story.

Combining lives

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the start of Lent. Which is beginning of the 40 day period leading up to Easter that represents, according to the Bible, the time that Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry (if you didn't know what it represented exactly before, don't worry...I didn't either until I did some research to find the exact meaning of Lent). It used to be widely recognized by all Christians until the Protestant Reformation (15 and 1600s), but many Protestant churches still recognize it, such as Lutherans and Methodists. SO anyway, you didn't read this post I'm sure to get a historical background on Lent....but I felt as if that background was necessary for the remainder. Now to the point....

*******
Jimmy is Catholic. Grew up in a wonderful Catholic home all his life with devout parents and family, attended Catholic grade school and high school and regularly attended mass and participated in parish activities.

Brittany (me) is Methodist. Grew up in a wonderful Methodist home all her life with devout parents and family. Her grandfather is a Methodist minister. Her family regularly attended church and participated in church activities.
********

So do you see the similarities? Both of us are very strong in our own denominations along with our families and feel that faith and church and God are very important in our personal lives and our soon to be life together as a married couple. We dated for about 4 years before getting engaged and while the question of "what church will WE attend" was always in the back of our minds, we never really brought it up and forced ourselves to discuss the topic until we were thinking about getting engaged...because who really wants to talk about something so personal unless you know you NEED to talk about it? We did always go to our respective churches together when we were back in Kansas City when we were in college, but when we were both finally living in Kansas City was when the conversations began. And the thing about the conversations that was always there, a true respect for each other's faith's and personal beliefs. That was the best thing about them. Neither of us expected the other to convert, only go to the others church, or only follow the others traditions. At the beginning of 2009, we signed up for a 10 week Alpha course at my church, but it is nondenominational and focuses on the basics of Christian faith. While that might not sound like a huge deal, it was a BIG commitment because it was 2.5 hours every week for 10 weeks + a weekend retreat, and we did stick to it. We heard a lot of things we already knew from our respective Christian upbringing, but we also learned a lot, especially in terms of how we want to be a Christian couple together. All in all, it was worth the time and something that I think we both needed before we took the plunge into getting married.

Now you're saying "that's great, Brittany, but you still haven't gotten to the point of what church you will attend as a married couple". Yeah, yeah, I know. But the answer to that question is....both. We are not going to make ourselves decide. Some weeks we go to my church together, while other weeks we go to mass at Jimmy's church. We enjoy both of them and appreciate their differences. We realize that our respective faiths are important to both of us, so that is our solution for now. With kids, I realize, this is another story. We have had numerous discussions about this (sorry, a little too personal to share on the blog world), but we do know for sure that we will attend church all together as a family each week...so that's a good start. We are just finishing up our Catholic marriage prep courses that we have to take prior to getting married in a Catholic church and they have been wonderful and sparked great conversations about all kinds of fun things you get to discuss as you merge your lives. We know that it's important to continue to respect each other's faith practices and beliefs........which brings me to the overall point of this blog post.........yes it took me that long to get to the overall point........sorry I tend to include LOTS of details.

Point (yeah! you made it this far): I will be partaking in the Catholic practices this Lenten period and give up something that I love for 40 days and not eat meat from mammals and fowls on Fridays. I will not be partaking in the practice of fasting on Ash Wednesday though, I can only go so far and I'm really grouchy when I don't eat :) The reason I will be partaking in them is because it's something that is important to Jimmy and he'll be partaking in it as well, so it will be something that we can do together and hold each other accountable. (hence the blog post title: Combining Lives aka doing things together that are important to one another aka realizing what is important to the other person and doing it with them aka getting married and being in love)

I will be giving up: CANDY/SWEETS- for 40 days. I will not cheat on Sundays either. However, I will cheat during wedding related activities (showers, etc.). Because I do know for a fact that there are going to be some delicious sweet treats at the Carter shower in a few weeks that I won't be able to resist...but if you know me and my habits, I eat candy all the time. So this is going to be hard. But good. I know that this topic has been a tough one for us and I know for many others that are dating/married/getting married....but it's so so important!! One of my favorite times in marriage class is when we meet up to share our answers and they are the same because we've already talked about that! Now when we have one totally different (such as, I believe Jimmy needs to take out the trash....and he said we should share that........), that's another story!! So good luck with those personal and important conversations with your significant other, but worth it in the end. And overall what we have learned: respect and love for each other can take you through just about anything.

Valentines Day surprise!

So on Friday, we got new granite countertops and a new sink. And I rushed home after work and loved them!!! Love them still. However, the one thing I still absolutely HATED about our kitchen was the linoleum floor that is white, dirty, and very outdated. I try to clean it, but it's never clean. The dogs track mud in all over it and it's just gross. The new countertops were supposed to be the last house project on the "to do" list (which really just required $$ because it was not DIY) before the wedding. But, yes, it happened...I just couldn't handle how awful our pretty new granite looked with the old countertops. And since the granite was less than we had budgeted for, we had the extra $$ to buy supplies to tile the floor....and a free weekend......so guess what we did all weekend? :) We ripped up the old linoleum floors on Saturday to find a beautiful, almost camouflage, tile underneath. The good thing was though that after hammering the million staple down that were popping up, the base was actually in good condition and they had already leveled it out! So then on Sunday, we got to start laying the backer board down to serve as the base for the tile. FUN FUN. Here is a documentation of the weekend.......yes our wonderful valentine day/romantic weekend was spent with Roger, demolishing our kitchen floor and piecing it back together! Who said home ownership isn't fun??




Evan and Jimmy installing our awesome new facuet. This was technically before the floor demo project commenced. I had just asked my dad to come over and pull up the tile behind the fridge to see what the floor looked like underneath and what condition it was in...



...this was his initial ripping up. Jimmy claims I knew it would turn into a full demo. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't :)



Dad and Willy @ work!



The linoleum that is no more :)



Hello camo floors! Who would EVER want that in their kitchen??!!!?



Dad working hard---he is a machine!



Jimmy with his new favorite tool. He did scrape the crap out of his hand. What a tough guy!



And the end of Saturday night. We had to break so the guys could watch the KU game.



Sunday begins with installing the backer board. That stuff isn't cheap either!!



Went in all the crevices first..



Almost all covered!



Jimmy with his drill...



And I helped too!! Not going to lie, I have blisters and cuts all over my hands...



And the floor covered with the backer board, ready for the tile job on Saturday & Sunday!

My dad came over on his day off yesterday (President's day) and laid out all the tile and cut some of the tricky ones---and it looks great!! I can't wait for teh weekend so we can get the tile works started. So lucky to have him and Jimmy around who are smart enough to get all this done so fast! I am helping this time though, which I'm sure they appreciate! And I promise....LAST HOUSE PROJECT before the wedding and big one of 2010 (that includes major demo). Jimmy said I need to sign a contract stating this though because he doesn't believe me :) All I can say, I'm going to be one happy wife whipping up some cooking in this new kitchen!!!!!

Long overdue....Wedding shower fun!!

Ok, like I said, work has been crazy...working day and night...hence why I'm so so far behind on posting this!! But a few weeks ago, Saturday, January 30 my 6 wonderful bridesmaid all came into town and hosted a fantastic and so fun bridal shower at Lauren's parents house! It was the morning of the KU/K-State basketball game, so thanks to everyone who came and then made the trip to Manhattan after!! I'm so glad so many people go to come, it was SO SO fun to have so many friends in one place at one time. I guess that is what our wedding will be like, which I cannot wait!!

Anyways, the theme was bed and bath, which was great because we got awesome bedroom/room accessories and bathroom accessories, plus some wonderful kitchen stuff too!! The food was great, with a nice little mix of everything with some fun drinks, with champagne thrown into the mix :) Who doesn't want some champagne at 10AM?! I loved the balloons that Lauren got too- they matched our wedding colors perfectly!!

We started out mingling and then it was GAME TIME. The game was a video that Emily took of Jimmy during their lunch break (in a suit, he made her do it on a day that he wore that so he could look fancy!) in which she asked him questions ranging from- when was our first kiss, what is the worst meal I've ever made him, what is the last thing I do before I go to bed, and finally what are our wedding colors? It was hysterical because I would attempt to answer the questions first and then she'd show the video of him answering. Pretty much, we answered them the same way and kept wanting more detail from her- which she wouldn't give either of us. His most embarrassing answer was our first kiss. I said I didn't remember and maybe in his apartment at some point? Then his answer pops up and he states, "Brittany won't remember this because she was black out drunk on her birthday. We were walking from Aggieville back to Pi Phi - which is a LONG walk - and she just grabbed me and started kissing me." Um, hello, so embarrassing....but now that he mentions it...he was right :) Oops. Guess it's good that I had some liquid courage?



You can kind of see the game in the background- Emily did an AWESOME job!!

Anyways, it was so so fun and I cannot thank my bridesmaids enough for all the work they did planning it and organizing it and everyone taking the time to come back into town. Only 2 of them live in KC, so 4 of them had to travel...so I cannot thank them enough :) Here are some pictures!! Vanessa also wrote a post about it too :)



My wonderful bridesmaids!!



Maid of honor, bride, and mother of the bride :) So cute!

I got some great gifts too!! Here some are in action.....



My awesome new alarm clock from my Hallmark friends. It shows the time and temperature on the ceiling, so it encourages laziness when I wake up. Love it and love the "nature" sounds it makes!!



Towels- we needed new towels bad! Got them washed and ready to use



Our new comforter!!! I can't wait to get our new king size bed to use it. From my bridesmaids- I freaked out because I really didn't think anyone was going to buy it for me!! Thanks so much!



The picture frames from Ali that I'm going to put over the bed!



The great pillows that match perfect that I have been dying to get to go on our guest bed :)



Awesome waffle maker from Jamie- we already tried it out!! Delicious!



New cookie sheets from Mallorie- that we were in desperate need of!



Yum, panini maker from Sir! And then you can kind of see the fun Christmas cookie cutters from Myers...can't wait for holidays 2010 to use these :)



New kitchen towels and oven mitt....from Karel the wonderful host...that look great in our new kitchen!



Bathroom accessories from Jimmy's mom! I love the new toothbrush holder and trashcan!



SLAP CHOP! Best present, according to Jimmy! I had no idea he even put that on our registry. So funny. But thanks Allie because we have used it tons of times now!



Some new kitchen utensils from Jessica and Liz- I love the sleek design and cushion on the handle!! Now I need to figure out what do to with the cute "C" bag that they came in!



Clock from Heather looks great in the man cave. Oh and here's Jimmy's random TV he bought. Oh Jimmy.



New curtains in the man cave, courtesy of Mrs. Dawson's gift card that she gave me from Target!! THANKS!!!



And finally, little Miss Milly looking so so cute in her blanket :)

It was so fun and we got some awesome stuff- thanks to everyone who came and again to my awesome bridesmaids for hosting it :) I know it was a lot of work and I appreciate it! Love you all!!

My dad would be so proud!

One thing that I can guarantee you after the snow falls in KC, no matter how soon after the snow stops, if I go over to my parents house, their driveway will be perfectly clean. My dad is crazy obsessed with shoveling snow right after it falls. Being a resident at his house my whole life, I just always expected a clean and clear driveway right after snow. Well, Jimmy and I quickly learned that with a house comes a huge responsibility of shoveling our LONG driveway. In December when it snowed a ton, we didn't do it right away because in our mind, it was going to just keep snowing, so what was the point?? Hm, bad idea. The more we drove on the snow, the more compacted it got, then the temperature dropped and it became ice. So on top of snow in our driveway, we had ice as well. Needless to say, I was just praying for the temperatures to hit above freezing so it would FINALLY melt!!

It melted and then life went on. But then on Friday, February 9 it randomly decided to snow- a lot more than I thought it was. So on my way home from work I was chuckling at the people outside already shoveling their driveway! No way did I think it snowed that much. But as I pulled into our driveway, my car could barely make it in! I had to go to Artisans and Angels right around 5:30...and I have never shoveled our huge, long driveway myself, but I knew the more I drove on it, the more icy it would get. So I did it. I took on the challenge of shoveling the whole driveway. With our new shovel in hand, it actually wasn't TOO hard. I was about ready to pass out after it was over though because my arms were killing me!!!

Check out the new shovel....



And the cleared driveway...







Me, so proud of my shoveling skills :)



After I finished, I quickly got ready and headed to the wonderful fundraising event----but had to call my dad and tell him on the way that we were the FIRST house on the block to have a cleared driveway. He wasn't home, but I talked to my mom and told her to tell him immediately. I knew he would be proud!!! Keeping up those strange family traditions! And the best part was how happy I was with my "accomplishment" every time I drove into the driveway that it was free of snow/ice!! Yeah!

And as I'm writing this, a week and 2 days later, it's snowing again in KC...guess it's out to the driveway for me :)

Anticipation

It's killing me. It really is. There are so many things I feel like I'm just sitting here waiting in anticipation!!

1. Getting granite countertops tomorrow installed. I am sitting in our empty-ish kitchen (well empty countertops) just staring around, imagining in my head what the little swatch I have sitting on the empty countertop will look like when I get home tomorrow when it covers all the blue!! And the sink....no more white/moldy sink or leaky faucet!! Wahoo! I feel like a little kid does on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa come. Except my present comes in the form of a large mold of granite....

2. Work...has been really stressful this week and I have been working non-stop. I have to load the final plan tomorrow. I finished it up tonight around 6, but for some reason couldn't make myself load it and be done. So now I'm sitting here thinking about it still, wishing it was done and there was no turning back. Tomorrow.....then no more plan until 2011!

3. Wedding! This is the good kind of anticipation (unlike #2). We sent out the invites on Monday and already got 10 response cards in the mail today :) Jimmy was home before me, so he texted me saying there 10 and he was nice enough to leave them for me to open! I think he knew how excited I would be!! It's becoming oh so real!! And I'm just so happy with the way our invitations turned out- it was worth the extra work!

Now I have to attempt to go to sleep. Busy day tomorrow at work and then dinner with the Carter's at our rehearsal dinner spot to finalize the menu :) One more check off that to-do list! And then to see Valentines Day- I know, very cliche...but I mean I'm obsessed with TSwift, so I'm sure no one is surprised!

My first official blog award

Ok so this is exciting stuff people!! Last Thursday morning, I wrote the post about feeling naked with no jewelry on. Soon after I posted that, I got a comment from someone named the "Office Bride" that came to my gmail account. I thought "well that's exciting that I got a comment from someone I don't know!!". So I get on the old blog to check it out!

She tells me that she left me a little something on her blog....and I'm SO curious!! What does this mean? Is this a new blog friend? How do you leave something for someone on your blog? So I use the link to head over to her blog...and I find THIS post!! She had found my blog on the Wedding Bee (yes, I hate to admit it....but I do post some stuff on there. I just cannot help it!!) and has been reading it and her comments were: "Love her writing style! Very funny!" Ok, so really, how great/awesome/fun/fantastic is that?



With that said, I would like to pass on this award, as instructed!! The rules of this award are as follows:

1. To accept the award, you must post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted you the award, and a link to their blog.
2. Pass the award on to approximately 10-15 other blogs that you recently discovered, and think are great!
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Here is the list of whom I'm passing on to:
1) A day in the life.... This is Mrs. Emily Griffin's life and it's pretty stinking entertaining. I love it! And she updates frequently!
2) Three's Company- This is a mix of everything and documentation of the Moore's life. Dogs, house, decorating, funny stories!
3) Planning for the Next Big Thing is a Dallas PR mastermind's blog about her work, life, and upcoming wedding! I just want her to updated more frequently so I can feel more "in" on her life!!
4) Life on the other side of the Mississippi is about one of my best friend's new life as a married couple in a new city with a new house and a new job!! So great!
5) 1100 Miles and One Right Turn- this is great because Lauren & Chris both update it about their life in DC as newlyweds :)
6) I Wish My Life was a High School Musical - Now if the blog title doesn't get you hooked- check out the URL. Hilarious! And this is true, she does wish her life was a HSM.
7) No Husband, No House, No Dog - Ashley apparently thought you needed those things to start a blog...well you don't and I'm loving her blog and posts :)
8) (Nutshell) - Lora posting about her life in Denver- LOVE the randomness and honesty!!
9) Daily Distractions - Molly's life in law school, planning a wedding, and fun!
10) That's What She (Courtney) Said - Random. Funny. Doctor to be.


So there you go, top 10 blogs I love by my friends :) So pass it on!!

Also....in other exciting news!! 2 months exactly from today---at this exact time, we'll probably be swinging around in each other's arms dancing our first dance as husband and wife----yes, 2 months until our wedding day! Wahoo!!

SO much to say....SO little time

Ok, so I have like 1000 and 1 blog posts in the "hopper" and I promise they are good ones!! A quick preview to what's in the works:

- My first official blog award (yes, you read that right!!!)
- A Wedding Shower! Where are the gifts now?
- My dad would be proud....
- Discussions and judgement
- Programs...the trials & tribulations

I think that's it, maybe?

BUT, one piece of news that I must share in the midst of finshing up some late night work due to a deadline being pushed up 2 weeks for LOTs of work to do (yes, so fun)...we mailed the wedding invitations today! My mom and I met at the Lenexa post office and the postal lady was true to her word. She let my mom and I stand there and hand stamp all of the envelopes ourselves. While they will be sorted electronically, I did stamp every single one of them myself...so get excited, as they are coming to a mail box near you :)

As a thank you to the nice postal lady, my mom is bringing them Panera bagels tomorrow! So brides everywhere, we are buttering this location up for you!!

Anyway, the feeling of sending them off and having them out of my possession was amazing. What wasn't amazing was having my tongue taste like glue all day Sunday because I licked every one of them closed...but it was well worth it. And Jimmy was the stamp man. Such a great team.

YES! That means the wedding fun can officially begin :)

Here they are...ready to be sorted and sent off!

Wedding Breakdown #3--time is flying

Now come on, you know you love these posts...if you missed #1 and #2, no worries, you can read those to catch up. Well it happened yesterday, mid-day and it really hit me out of the blue. An unexpected, unanticipated mid-day realization. OMG WE'RE GETTING MARRIED IN ALMOST EXACTLY 8 WEEKS. WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE MY TO-DO LIST KEEPS GETTING LONGER, WHEN IN THEORY IT SHOULD BE GETTING SHORTER...RIGHT? WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I SUDDENLY CANNOT BREATHE?

Let me go back and take you to the "moment". Originally, the tux place told Jimmy and I that the 2 ring bearer tuxes were going to be the same rental price as the big kids (aka Jimmy and friends), which was $99. For a big kids tux, reasonable. For a 5 year old and a 3 year old...not so much. So Jimmy's mom and I found a more cost effective alternative and just bought them black suits for $30. Now what we didn't think about was that on top of $30, there would be shoes ($$), dress shirt ($$) and a tie ($). Sometimes my brain works too simply. But then I got an email from Jimmy's sister in laws asking if their cute little boys could rent tuxes and that they were willing to pay the difference. So then I started thinking---did I push hard enough, ask enough questions...because honestly, they can't really think it's ok to charge the same price for a child, right? So I pick up the phone mid-day and call him. I just start asking him about the number of rentals, what their "deal" is in terms of rent X get X free...and then he's like, oh yeah, well for the kids, since you have 2, we'll only charge you $50 for their rental. Done, sold, deal. Being a numbers person, the cost/benefit analysis of spending $50 on a rental- that provides everything- is well worth it over the $30 suits + extras. Problem solved. I'm happy! Then he says it. Unknowingly drops the bomb that sends me into a spinning spiral. "So you have Person 1, Person 2 and Person 3 that still need to come get fitted for their tuxes...they will need to come in the next 2 weeks because we place the tux order 6 weeks prior to the wedding". I sit there, in silence, doing math in my head. Wait, so they need to come in the next 2 weeks because they order 6 weeks...........OMG WE'RE GETTING MARRIED IN 8 WEEKS. Once I catch my breath, I tell him thanks and peace out.

It's lunch time. I walk to the cafeteria to meet a few friends for lunch and in my head I hear this voice (kind of in an echo/Samuel L. Jackson voice) saying..."You're getting married in almost 8 weeks. You must stay up to date on your to do list, you must finalize all your projects, you must do this and that and this and that.....". Panic. Sweating. Heavy breathing. Eyes wide open and staring straight ahead. I'm surprised the people in the elevator with me didn't question my health.

Lunch time fun. I joke about it with friends "haha, getting married so soon, lol, so much to do, oh it's so fun". Walking back upstairs alone....silent freak out. All afternoon, working, make a to-do list, working, finalizing ideas, working, prioritizing my evening, working, telling Jimmy I cannot watch the KU game with him because REMEMBER OUR WEDDING...YEAH........

To put myself at ease, I decide I'm going to spend the whole evening aimlessly walking around craft stores looking for deals and ideas. And I did. I got home, skipped work out class and went straight to Michaels- after loving the pups for a few. I walked around for about an hour. Spent $10, but it was a successful $10. Bags for favors, ribbon for favors and ribbon for programs. Also a really cute dog paw print punch for $1. This also involved a 25 minute phone conversation with bridesmaid Erica. In which she asked what I was getting at Michael's, and my response was vague, so she then heard about the breakdown.

Next store: Hobby Lobby. I walk around aimlessly there. Napkins to attempts stamping our monogram on, looking for little envelopes for ceremony tissues, looking at frames for our guest book picture sign thing, almost buying a really cute "C" frame thing. This also involved a 25 minute phone conversation with bridesmaid Vanessa. In which she asked what I was getting at Hobby Lobby, and my response was vague, so she then heard about the breakdown as well.

Next store: Target. I was really needing to find a table number/name holder idea. I bought something I think might work at Michael's, but needed more. No luck for wedding stuff at Target. However, I did find this AWESOME and oh so perfect sign in the $1 section at Target. I bought 2 of them, one for me, one for my parents. That was it. I was proud I didn't buy anything else.



Next store: I wanted to go to JoAnns, but at this point it was 9:00....and apparently stores close and don't care that brides everywhere have random breakdowns and need to walk around their store to feel better. So JoAnns is on tonight's agenda.

Believe it or not, as I was driving home- I felt a lot better. More calm and excited that I did find a few things that I think will work and are putting me in the right direction to cross things off of my to-do list instead of adding them. So I guess all I needed was a little craft store-retail therapy? I'm a freak. But whatever works right? The exciting part is that invitations go out at the 8 week mark....so that will be a HUGE check off the list. And lucky enough for me, Barb aka mother of the bride, made BFFs with the lady at the Lenexa post office...so she is letting us hand stamp our invites on Monday afternoon. Sweet! Way to go Barb. Hopefully sending those off makes me feel relieved. I think it will. Not only that it's a big check mark off the to do list, but it will also make me happy because I won't have to worry about one of the dogs peeing on them. They are up on the bar stools in a big box right now, but I've seen Toby do some crazy things.

And here's hoping for only a max of 5 "wedding breakdown" posts.....but with 8 weeks left, you never know :)

Feeling Naked

I got into my car this morning and half way to work I realized that I didn't have any jewelry on (minus my e-ring). No earrings, no watch, no necklace, and no ring on my middle finger of my right hand.

AH!!! I FEEL SO NAKED.

Now I cannot stop touching my ear lobes and reminding myself that I have no earrings on. I keep looking at my left wrist, only to see a black pony tail holder and no watch. When I take my ring(s) off to put lotion on my hands, I only have one ring to take off not two.

I almost want to go home just to put my normal jewelry on. It's weird how when you wear something everyday you get so used to it and then when you don't have it on, it drives you nuts. Kind of like when you get engaged. I freaked out because I was like, I never will get used to wearing a ring on my left hand ring finger 24/7. It kind of freaked me out. But now, after about 10 months...I literally lose it if it's not on my finger and I think I lost it! Same thing I'm sure with my wedding band. When I have gone in to try it on with my engagement ring, I kept making comments like "wow, I can't imagine wearing this all the time and looking down at my hand and seeing it". The jeweler was like- "well, you got used to your engagement ring, right? You will get used to this." And she also encouraged me to get bigger diamonds than I originally thought I wanted. But I mean- I'm not complaining about that :)

Anyways, the point is...I feel naked...I need my jewelry...

What makes you "feel naked" if you forget to wear it? I'm sure there's something...

Willy's attire: a poll

All right---here is is. We have the tuxes for the guys, but now we need to figure out Willy's attire. I would love to put Toby in one of these too...but can you imagine what a disaster that might be? So we are going to go with a simple bow tie for him and maybe try out a top hat.

With that said, we need your help. Answer the poll question at the top of the page before this Friday at 5PM. It's based on the following tuxes:

Tux #1



As you can see, this one has a smaller hat, but it has no "tail" on the coat. It also has white buttons on the shirt.

Tux #2



This one is a little "fancier" in my opinion and has a tall hat complete with a tail and black buttons.

Willy will be sporting this outfit as a greeter outside of Aquinas when guests are arriving, so he needs to look sharp to impress all.

Thanks for your help :)

Happy birthday (yesterday!), Vanessa!

Yesterday marked one of my best friend's, Vanessa, big 2-5 birthday!! So glad I at least got to see her last weekend and tell her Happy Birthday in person :)

I did get an email from her first thing in the morning saying her dad has a bone to pick with me, which was a forward from her dad saying that ever since I started working at Hallmark, they started charging for Hoops & Yo-yo e-cards....so a short message from him would have to do for her birthday. Oh Fred.

Oh how time flies.....from when we first met senior year of high school, she was a pizza, I was a Hooter's girl, at a Halloween party, to being on the same rush floor freshman year, to pi phi and all the good times in college, to graduating, getting jobs, and now getting married...I feel like we've been through it all, but the exciting part is that I know there is so much more to come!! Love you V and miss you in KC, but can't wait to come visit STL again. Hope you had a great birthday yesterday!!

Some fun pics of us:



My 20th birthday!



Her 21st birthday!



At her wedding-what a beautiful bride :)

Love you V!! And many more happy birthday's to come!