We're (finally) Homeowners

We closed on December 4, 2009. This was the 3rd scheduled closing so you can say that we were fit to be tied. Everything seems to be going well with the house. It's warm, has plenty of warm water, and plenty of space. We still need to get blinds on the windows, but we're waiting till we have the money to get them from Lowe's. Come to find out that old windows in a old home require expensive blinds. We will have to have them cut to fit. Ben and Fatcat love the backyard. I sometimes can't even get Fatcat to come back in. I joined the gym yesterday and I think I may go tonight. So it's all starting to feel real. Like we're actually residents of Athens, Alabama.

I need reassurance

I feel like everything is so out of wack right now. And it really sucks since this is my favorite part of the year. I can't enjoy it since this funk has fell on top of me. :( Nothing is going right right now. Everything is good at work so I can be happy about that. But in everything else I feel uncertain and uneasy. I wish it was easier for me to express feelings. Ah oh well. It's a short work week. I can be happy about that for today.

10 weeks and counting

This is how long it has been since we made the offer on the house. However, I do believe that Monday will be the day that we sign those closing papers. And it couldn't have come at a better time. It being 3 days before Thanksgiving and all. But either way we just want to be in our house, so we'll take what we can get. We went yesterday and signed a form that we are sure that we signed before. Our mortgage officer said that would be Monday. But it's not like we have a time or anything. So, I guess we will just have to see.

But today is going to be a great day since #1. It's Friday and #2. today is the premiere of "New Moon".

Me having a possible Etsy store?

I am seriously considering making my own products to sell on the internet, via etsy.com. If the wedding items that I'm making for myself goes well, fast, and stays together :) I think I might tackle this project over the holidays. I have the potential to make a profit of at least $30 per item. I am also thinking of painting wine glasses and doing something with koozies. Here in Alabama, everyone wants something with their favorite football team's logo on it. I'll let you know what I decide. Currently speaking, trying to buy the supplies for doing all of this might not be the best idea, with moving in our house in all.

The wedding party is growing.

Well not exactly, but we now have 2 groomsmen. We were in Florence saturday night and Lance said to two of his really good friends "I know that nobody wants to be in weddings, but if yall want to that would be cool". BOth of the guys said they would do it. I can't believe were almost 6 months out and Lance is just now asking people. Joel P. and Chris P. will be in our wedding. I'm thrilled about this selection. They are wonderful guys. Plus Joel said that he would take Lance to LV for the bachelor party. I jokingly asked if I could come. But really, I want to go to LV.

Bama vs. LSU

This Saturday is the game that I am actually very excited to watch. I'm not sure where were watching it but I know that it will (hopefully) be a good game. This Saturday morning I am also going with a couple of my bridesmaids to order their dresses. Yay! I wish this weekend would have worked for all of the bridesmaids but it's okay. At least this is getting taken care of. I cant wait to see the dress in the actual color that I picked.

Current weight lost - 4.6 lbs.

Yay! I am finally losing this stupid vacation weight. I would like to lose another 5.5 lbs. I'm in no rush though. I would like for it to be off or almost off by the first of December. I have kind of quit my 10-day diet, but I am still eating the recommended foods. In the morning for breakfast I usually eat a piece of fruit. For a mid-morning snack I eat some fruit or an egg or cheese slices. For lunch I eat some beans and some fruit. For dinner I eat mostly vegetables. So I am eating around 4 small meals a day. And those meals are mostly all fruits. Last week I even ate out a couple of times. But I made sure not to stuff myself or eat greasy, fried foods.

I'm a winner

on Ebay! I won the bracelet and hair piece for a total of $41.41. I figure I can get the beads, ribbon, and clasp for about $10. So that willbe around $50.00 for both pieces. Not to shabby.

Another VERY EXCITING moment!

Well I have found another fabulous find on ebay. Seller lafancybeads sells exactly the kind of jewelry that I have been looking for. I really want this and you can see how expensive it is. I found the rhinestone piece for $15.00 on ebay. I can't believe this. It will be super easy (I think) to attach the pretty ribbon. I'll save about $65.00! Go me!

I'm excited!

I ran over to Michael's last night to get some ideas about DIY wedding jewelry. The only thing that I found of any interest was Ecru colored glass pearl beads. Almost 200 beads for $4.00. So this will definitely make a nice bracelet, earrings, and maybe a necklace. The one thing that I was really looking for I couldn't find. This morning I asked fellow knotties if they knew where to find a cheap antique brooch-to make the bracelet with. This is EXACTLY the one that I wanted! I think the price of this DIY bracelet will be under $25 dollars. The ones on Etsy.com are going for $65. So yea I am thrilled about this. I have also been thinking about the kind of earrings I want. When I noticed that I don't have a ton of money to spend on the wedding jewelry I began to re-think my orignal plan. I initially thought that I wanted some big blingy earrings. However, since it's a midday wedding I think it might be more appropriate to wear a smaller pearl dangle type of earring. I found this pair on Overstock.com. I LOOOVEE them and love the fact that they are hand made. However, the details say that they are white pearls. So these won't work. I'll just have to keep searching.

Wedding map

I realized yesterday that I really need to make a decision about the wedding invites etc... I also realized that I may want to include a map on an enclosure card. I'm not sure if many people will need it, but it just seems like the nice thing to do. Anyhoo, I found free service website, Wedding Mapper. It locates your wedding location and adds in extras such as: hotels and restaurants. It looks like a really well drawn out map. However, you do have to do some "Techie" critiquing. Which sounds just awful. But hey! For free-I'll take it!

Wedding Budget

We never made a wedding budget because it didn't like we would need to. We never planned on spending much money or money that we didn't have (credit cards).
Now, with there being about 6 months till the wedding I think we should look at what were planning to spend.
Ceremony and Reception Site - FREE
Dress - $1000.00 (PAID)
Photography - $1200.00 ($500.00 PAID)
Food - $1000.00
Cakes - $300.00
Flowers - $300.00
BP Gifts - $300.00
Wedding License & Officiant Fee $80.00
Paper (stationary) - $200.00
Bridal Accessories - $150.00
Decor - $200.00
Budget for everything except rings, honeymoon, wedding parties (showers)- $5000.00
Budget as of now $4,530
Minus what has already been paid - $3,030
Looks like we could spend another $270.00 and be at our budget. Maybe we could get a videographer!
Recap - we still have around $3,000 that we will have to spend.

Possible reception food

This weekend I spent a lot of time thinking about wedding related things. I spent a lot of time thinking about food. Since we are having 2 receptions, one at the University and one at our house I have to budget and plan for 2 receptions. This is what I have came up with so far.

University Reception
-fruit and dip (maybe not dip) $125-with dip
-cheese ball and crackers $ 95
-vegtables and dip $ 75
-meatballs $ 65
-chicken salad croissants $180 (*I would love to have 50 chick salad and 50 pimento cheese.)
-tea
-lemonade
-plates, napkins, cleanup
I figure that having a 2pm reception people won't expect to be fed a complete lunch. To me this seems like adequate food, and does not include the wedding cake. I may do another meat-chicken tenders.
Budget would be around $500-600 for this reception for 100 people.
*Now looking at the food and the cost for the reception I'm wondering if we could do the food ourselves.

Backyard Reception
I don't have a list of foods that I would serve for this reception. I would do most of the food myself and probably order the meat. This reception would be for about 30-40 people and this would be an informal dinner reception. I would like this food to reflect what foods we like and be easy to make and clean up.
I think that if we could stay around $400 for this reception that would be fantastic.
Looks like our ideal food budget will be around $1000.00.

What to be for Halloween?

It just donged on my yesterday that Halloween is quickly approaching. We're having Halloween at work on Thursday, October the 29th. I know that I want to dress up, but I'm still not sure who or what to be. My ideas include: 70's girl, balloon girl-instead of balloon boy, or trophy wife. Out of all of these I feel that 70's girl would be the cheapest. But I love the balloon girl idea. I was thinking about taking a cheap laundry hamper and cutting the bottom out of it. Getting a bunch of helium balloons and try and make it look like I'm in a hot air balloon. I think this would be super cute and I may win the prize this year! For Saturday which is actually Halloween (if I buy a costume)I was thinking of being either Mother Earth, Beer Girl, or Angel. I have always wanted to be a German Beer Girl-so I would probably go with one of those costumes. But their so dang expensive. Which probably means that I will just make something.

This month just keeps getting worse.

Friday after I got back from my conference I had an email from my fiance. It included an entire conversation about our closing date. Now we aren't closing until the middle of November. I guess we won't be having Thanksgiving at our house. I can't believe how long this is taking. On top of that it seems like the people that we have trusted with our home buying and the loan process are mostly MIA. Whatevs. To top off the best weekend ever! Kidding. We were scammed! Saturday night two cute, young "college" girls came to the door "selling magazines". Long story short-I placed a stop payment on two checks and went and closed the bank account completely. I now have a new bank account and an urge to kick some ass. Well... at least their little asses. Plus, channel 48 called wanting an interview. I very nicely declined. I have had to deal with enough this, well, this entire month. I hope everyone begins to no longer trust anyone. These cute girls are going to screw it up for the rest of us ;)
FYI Cafe World on FB is the best game ever.

We have a moving day

Lance made arrangements with the moving company to move us on October 30th. Hopefully, we will have the keys to the house by then. The moving company charges more on the weekends. So were hoping that this date works out. We are going to start packing tonight. It's mandatory. We are also going to pay off the appliances this weekend. It won't be long now till we're in our new home.

United States Marine Corp.

is getting a new soldier, my little sister-Jennifer. She will be leaving this Monday and will do her basic at Parris Island Military Base. I think she is so brave and I am very proud of her. But I don't think that it has actually hit me that she is leaving and has chosen a military career. I just never saw this coming. Good luck Jen! I love you.

Worst week ever!

Seriously, I don't think I have ever had so many things go wrong in one week. First, someone got into my car and broke the interior console in my car. Looks like they were trying to steal my cd player, but failed. But in the process decided to break everything around it. Luckily for me they didn't take anything. Kinda weird. Secondly, our beloved Fatcat almost destroyed our mattress and we had to buy a new one. That was money that we weren't planning on spending right before closing on the house. Over the past couple of days we have seen some improvement with the smell-it seems to be going away. This coming week were going to clean it as best as we can. If the stain comes out then we'll be able to keep it and use it as a guest bed. I hope it comes clean. I hate to throw away a 3 year old king size mattress. And thirdly, my most hated-Troy University has given me a headache again. I have taken three courses towards my Masters of Science in Public Administration. However, when I first applied I selected a Masters of Science in Management as my degree program. I have been trying to change my program since January. Now my administrative advisor is telling me that I was never supposed to take any MPA classes, because I haven't actually been accepted. What!? Now she wants me to write a 500 word graduate entrance essay and turn it in with my resume. Once again I am amazed at how disorganized this University runs. I have an email dated May 13, 2009 from this same advisor telling me that she is going to change my program "right this minute". So I am quite mad about this situation. I am terrified that "What if I am not selected even though I have already taken courses?" My co-workers have told me that that won't happen, but Troy University never seizes to amaze me. After this tryly terrible week I plan on having a less stressful but very productive weekend. Got to start packing! Oh yea I almost forgot. Since Monday i Have lost 2.5 pounds. WooHoo.

I'm on a mission

I started a diet yesterday. It's called the 10-day diet. It consists of 6 small meals a day. Well maybe not meals, rather 2 foods: beans and an apple. There are lots of foods to choose from too. I really think this diet is going to work. I only ate small servings of fruits, cheese, beans, and 2 hard boilded eggs. You also have to watch what you drink. I have had water and caffeine-free diet mt. dew. I'll let you know Friday if this diet is showing results. I told myself that I won't weight myself until Friday. I'm really wanting to buy some new clothes in the next month and the only way I'm doing is if I lose 8-10 pounds.

Good news about our house

We got a call today from our Mortgage Loan Officer and we found out that we are getting a much better interest rate than we were orignally thought. It was 6.50(?) now it's 5.37, I think those are the right numbers. This means that our payments will be about $60.00 less per month. So yea we're happy about it. Still no news on our closing date, but we turned in our notice to move out of our apartment. So technically we have to be moved out by November 6, 2009.

Fiddler's Convention Re-cap

The Fiddler's Convention came and went this past weekend. This is the event that I have been working on since this July. So I am truly happy to see it come and go. Not to many problems to mention, only a few people that lied to get extra tickets (that only cost $15.00) and another *crazy* lady that got mad about her booth spot and packed up and left on Friday night. I also have to mention the BSC lady that I spoke with yesterday. She actually cried during our phone conversation because I couldn't reserve a booth for her a year in advance. This really pushed my buttons. I looked at her application and she lives in Athens, Alabama and not the county area, the city limits area. I told her that she could bring her application in the day after she receives it in the mail. She actually said that she wasn't sure if she could do that. Whaaaa?? Plus, I called her at her house during the day-meaning that she doesn't have a day job. How lazy right.? Anyhoo, Fiddler's was an overall success. We had a little bit of rain Friday morning and then blue skies for the rest of the weekend. So I feel pretty good about my task-that was a very BIG task :)

Updates

-"Friends" movie will be made!
-I must lose 10 pounds.
-Tried on my wedding dress Saturday-I must lose weight!
-Picked out 12 dresses for my Bridesmaids to pick from.
-(I think) were 30 days out from closing.
-I'm attempting to go without caffiene this week(for my tummys sake.)
-Fiddler's starts in 2 days.
-I'm very tired this morning.

My wedding dress is in!

I actually found out on my birthday, but I thought I would go ahead and a announce the good news. I'm hoping to go this Saturday morning. But with the football games and F wanting to head to Florence to see some friends it could be hard to fit it in. Also, I know that i previously talked about how I had started our registries. Well, I have actually registered for about 45 things. We are registered at Target and Dillard's. I absolutely love registering. It's kind of like window shopping-you know that you really want it but you can't buy it. But I'm hoping to get some things that we registered for!

I've been 26 for almost a week!

I want to recall the 10 things that happened while I was 25.
1.) Got engaged 14 days before turning 25.
2.) Started my wedding planning.
3.) Bought the most expensive dress I'll ever wear (wedding dress).
4.) Made an offer on our first home.
5.) Started graduate school.
6.) Moved to Huntsville, Alabama.
7.) Started to TRY to write a children's book (Hopefully I'll be finished by the time I turn 27).
8.) I was hired permanently in a job and at a place I love.
9.) Began running on a regular basis.
10.) Paid off most of my debt.
Looking at this list just shows that at 25 I was very busy. There are a couple of things that I wished I had done better, but maybe I can accomplish that at 26. Oh and my 26th birthday was GREAT! Lance sent me a very large bouquet of flowers, My sister got me a super cute reed diffuser, and I received money from family and friends. My co-workers took me to "Casablanca", where I had whipped cream rubbed all over my face. Ha. And Lance took me to eat delicious pasta and drink yummy wine. So yea It was a good one.

I've registered...

For three things. Haha. I went to www.amazon.com because I have heard such great things about their wedding registry, such as: unlimited selection and free shipping with $25.00 purchase. I thought that I would just sign up to have a wedding registry and then this morning came. I ended up registering for three items. It's alright I guess. I know people that I have registered a year in advance. I figure well register at Dillard's and Target later this year or early next year. With www.amazon.com you can add and take away items so easy. So that's my little confession. I have to admit that it was extremely fun registering for those three things. I can't imagine how much fun I'll have when I register for all the goods.

The slow process of buying a home.

I can't exactly remember when we made the offer on the house, but I'm guessing that it was the first week of August. We still haven't gotten the OK from the bank. And after the bank OK's it it goes to RD (rural development) where it is supposed to take like 2-3 weeks. I do realize that everyone is buying right now because of the $8,000.00 offer, but dang. I am still happy to be buying this house, but it's difficult to get super excited like I thought I would be. Maybe it will hit me when we close on the house. Our timeline for all of this to happen starts at October 15th. We hope that will be our closing date so that it will allow us to have 2 weeks and 2 days to get appliances installed, a new cabinet, paint, and be moved in. We haven't had a chance to tell the apartment complex about our move out date. They are open on Saturdays, but no one is ever in there! So that irks me a little. I just like plans-and none of this is allowing me to plan.

Our wonderful friends

So...this Saturday we drove over to Arab to visit mom and Erin and Josh. We got to visit with mom for about two hours and it was great. I also got my birthday present a little early. Thanks mom! We then headed over to Erin's to visit. There were a few people there when we got there but then it ended up turning into a full fledged party. I'm glad that we went, we got to see all of our friends, plus a few people that I haven't seen in years. However, I had a little too much fun, and ended the night early. I won't go in to details but lets just say that the drinks I had did not agree with me. But all in all it was a fun night, and I may not have survived if my friends weren't there for me. So thank you friends. We got back home yesterday at about 11:00 and watched the second Harry Potter. I washed Ben and got some laundry washed, so I still had a productive day. Last night the VMA's were on and they played the 3rd preview for "New Moon". It looks so much better than Twilight. Check it out.

Remembering 9.11.01

I can remember exactly where I was and who I was with when the planes hit the towers. I was sitting in my Sociology class (freshman year) at Wallace Community College. The teacher's husband called her and told her about and other professors came in and told us. Our teacher let us out of class and we went and sat outside by our car. I remember, Erin, Kenley, Tyler, Jessica, and Ashley being there. I remember that school got cancelled and my mom called and told us all to get gas (and that's what everyone was doing-getting gas).

What is your flashbulb memory of this event?

Also, I ordered my tickets for "New Moon" for November 20th. I'm sorta excited :)

T-Minus 7 days until my birthday!

My birthday is next Thursday and so far I know that I'm going to my mom's and my friend's houses this weekend and I'm going out to lunch with my co-workers on Thursday. Hopefully my DF will have dinner plans made for me. I doubt that he'll get me a birthday gift. I told him to buy my wedding ring and that would be my anniversary gift and my b-day present. I'm also hoping to go to Octoberfest on September the 18th. I tried to find a website about it, but there isn't one.? Kinda weird. I went back in high school, but I don't remember much about it. But good food, good beer, and music makes for a good time for me :)
I was trying to find a quote or something for this upcoming occassion. I found something even better. This blog comes from The CDP. It's not exactly relevant for me, since I'm a woman, but still worth reading. I may try to make my own list of things that may suck about turning 26, or things I will do while I'm 26.
Enjoy the following...
"Today is my twenty-sixth birthday. In all of my life, I've never celebrated such a mundane, uneventful, apathetic and craptastic occasion. Nobody cares about 26; not even I care about 26.

So, instead of singing the praises of not stepping in front of a cement mixer or drinking ammonia for another year, I decided to be honest with myself and determine exactly why the age of 26 is the worst yet for everyone that experiences it. You can take this as either words of wisdom, or the bitter ranting of someone who's at least 33% dead. Tally-ho!

1. There's nothing left to look forward to concerning laws that pertain to age. When you turn 25, you can legally rent a car, but that's pretty much the end of it. All I have left now is the option to run for President of the United States when I turn 35, and my odds are looking a bit sketchy at the moment, to be honest.

2. Teenagers and mothers of teenagers no longer want to have sex with you. You've gone outside the box of acceptable age for rebellious teenagers and lonely housewives alike. The ship has sailed, grandpa, and if you weren't already on it, the best you can hope for is a postcard from someone that was.

3. When you were 22, you were only four years removed from High School. Your opinions concerning fashion trends, pop culture, music and film were still relevant in the eyes of the young. Now, you're eight years removed, and you instantly know nothing. You might as well be jitterbugging with Ginger Rogers and listening to Herb Alpert on the Victrola*, because you are old and obsolete.

4. It's difficult to enjoy professional sports when the athletes become younger than you are. When you're a child or teenager, you look up to these superheroes; you tape posters to the wall and pretend that you're them on the playground. Now, I find it increasingly harder and harder to care if some 8-foot tall, 17 year old will enter the NBA Draft a year early. How can you honestly say "You're the man!" to someone that's almost a decade younger than you? You know, assuming you're not a complete douche noozle*?

5. Nobody knows how old you really are. Every day, I hear people estimating me at somewhere between 19 and 30. At some point after college, you just become another faceless, MTV Generation turd that looks like he was born at some point in the early 80's. This may be true and well-deserved, but does our mediocrity need to be rubbed in our faces so much?

6. Everything sucks all over again. When you were a youthful, rebellious teen, you would reject all things mainstream, because you wanted to embrace the scene of the underground and appear cultured (if you were cool, that is). When you're 26, you once again attempt to buck the status quo, merely because nothing entertains you like it used to or should. It's a bleak, mediocre world out there. The underground sucks, the mainstream sucks, the tastemakers suck there's no scene left for you to crawl back to. Good luck with all of that.

7. You no longer get a free pass. You're an adult now. No borrowing money from mom. No paying bills late (not that I ever have, but still). No getting drunk on a Thursday; regardless of if Lost is on or not. No excuses, no safety net and no bitching. For the next 20 years, don't expect anyone to do absolutely anything for you, for any reason. If you're lucky by the time you're 45, you'll have kids that are in High School, and you'll get to start the vicious Circle of Poop all over again.

8. Your job has to be more than just a job. In school, anything that netted you a paycheck was considered welcome, acceptable and free of ridicule from your peers. When you're 26, grilling 'Sammies' at Quiznos just makes you look like you're missing a chromosome. Your employment is now your new social status scale; it's the first thing that anyone will ask you when you meet them. Fortunately for me, I can tell people that I'm an author and actually mean it, never mind the mere pennies of income it has netted me over the last four years.

9. If she's under 18 and you're talking to her, you're branded a pervert of the highest order, end of story. Case in point: Cargirl. I like Cargirl. She's sweet, intelligent, funny, well-written, has a good direction and point of view, and I think she'll be doing great things by the time she's out of college. However, every time I speak to her, I can feel Chris Hansen's frigid index finger tapping me on the shoulder and holding the transcripts. If I were pantsless and waving a teddy bear out the tinted window of my Chevy Van, it would be one thing, but I'm not and I still feel like I need a shower sometimes. Not cool; I blame my Catholic upbringing.


10. You start to buy albums that your parents listened to. U2. Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson. Led Zeppelin. Pink Floyd. Even the Bee Gees. These are all timeless and brilliant musical artists that everyone should probably own, but when you were younger, there was no chance in hell that they were ever going to show up in your CD collection. How do those words taste?

11. Things continue to hurt after you hurt them. Pull a muscle playing Wii Sports? Tweak your knee doing the Soulja Boy dance? Dehydrated after a marathon lovemaking session*? You're still going to feel it in the morning, Icy Hot or Vitamin Water be damned. 26 certainly isn't 46 in terms of aches and pains, but if you don't take care of yourself on a base level, the ibuprofen and Valium won't know the difference.

(*Your lovemaking sessions may vary.)

12. You've done nothing with your life. The dude that started Facebook is 23 years old, and he's a freaking billionaire. LeBron James is 23 years old, and he's being compared to Michael Jordan in terms of popularity and prowess. You know what I did when I was 23 years old? THIS! I sat on my ass, wrote funny stories, put on 30 pounds, drank whiskey, watched wrestling, read Entertainment Weekly and played Guitar Hero four hours a day. The 10 year old Me expected far greater things from the 26 year old Me. I'm letting him down on an hourly basis, and he really deserves better.

13. Everyone has heard all of your stories. Unless you're single or an astronaut, chances are that you've exhausted every interesting thing that has ever happened to you by this point in your life.* Your friends don't want to hear it, your spouse is tired of hearing it and strangers couldn't care less about it. You're out of memories; make more.

(*Not me, though. I still have hundreds more for you. Good ones.)

14. Vices are no longer cool. Hitting the casino for 16 straight hours? Chain-smoking a carton of Marlboro Mediums in your parents' basement? Riding that second ecstasy wave while lapping a Red Bull Bomb off of a Coyote Ugly dancer's taut tummy? Guess what? It's uncool and unoriginal. That kind of behavior was expected of you years ago, and now it's akin to the lonely guy at the club, leaning against the wall and tapping his foot out of sync with everything. Sure, it's still a lot of fun, but nobody else thinks it is, which is exactly why it isn't.

15. Nobody cares about your achievements. Learned to play an instrument? Well, there's an infant down the block that makes your guitar playing look like Stephen Hawking hitting himself in the head with a tambourine. Just got the new high score on XBox Live? Enjoy it for the three seconds before it gets trounced by some 10 year old Asian that did it blindfolded. Face it; you're too old to be proud of stuff. Just do it the best you can, exhale, and do something better next time. Put on a happy face for your mom, though; she's proud of everything you do.

16. Your parties are boring. When you were a kid, your parties were all about video games, music and candy. When you were a teen, your parties consisted of booze, nudity and louder music.

When you're 26? Yup, more video games and candy. It all comes full circle, but at least you have a nicer TV now.

17. You will do anything to remain youthful in the eyes of the young. If that 16 year old girl at the Buckle thinks that you look cute with the $250 Fossil watch around your waist, you'd better buy two of them and keep that gut sucked in. When your world revolves around High School, 26 is considered 'old.' Honest to God, old. Never mind that this is the same 26 year old that became the youngest person ever promoted to his current employment position. The truth is that each phase of life has its own sacred code, and you'll fight tooth and nail to cling to each passing one.

18. Your life is at least 33% over. If you're lucky, you'll make it to your 80's, but when's the last time you've been lucky about anything? Nope, your pie graph is engulfing upon itself, and no amount of hair gel or The Hills is going to change that. Start exercising for your body, doing sudoku for your mind, and taking Lexapro to stop the voices that remind you of your impending doom. You're dicked.

19. You flat-out stop remembering stuff. The Missus told me that when I was in the second grade, I did a magic act for the school talent show that she was in attendance for. Not only was this the first time that I was made aware of this story, but it was also the first time someone told me something about myself that was 100% unverifiable by me. I don't remember a second of that day. It's not foggy, it's not hazy and it's not vague; it's non-existent and it never happened in my brain. This is frightening to me, because if I don't remember that, what else don't I remember? Who should I try to avoid at the next reunion? How am I going to keep all of my lies in order if my head gets soft?

20. You're constantly hassled about starting a family. Me and the Missus don't want children right now. We'd much rather have a nice house, accompanied with nice things to put inside of said house. Our superficial tastes far outweigh our parental instincts right now, and I feel that at the very least, we're being honest. Better to get the hedonism out of the way early, as opposed to being a selfish parent later on. Children are always an option; I can adopt a kid on my death bed if I so choose. In fact, that'll probably be around the time I'm ready to accept that sort of responsibility. Stop asking; I don't care about children.

21. It's impossible to make new friends. How many friends have you made after the age of 25? I don't mean 'surface, outer-circle' friends, either. I'm talking about good, solid, 'hang-out-every-weekend with pillow fights and secret-sharing' friends. Probably not too many. That's because it's freaking hard. I'd have better luck going to a bar and finding random women that want to sleep with me, as opposed to a regular dude that just wants to talk about football and music, and that's just sad.

22. You measure your life differently. When you were younger, you'd save your money for the weekend. For a new video game. For a party. Now (if you're responsible), you save your money for retirement. For investing. For a new home. The Big Picture has taken over and swallowed the little goals and accomplishments that used to be so damn fun. You used to plan ahead to be happy a few days from now. Now, you plan ahead to be happy 40 years from now. What happened to the space in between? Where's the fun? It's still there, right? Right?

23. You're too responsible. Every purchase requires a moment of reflection, projection and quick subtraction. For example, I'll be buying an HDTV and 5.1 Home Theater as a birthday present to myself today. You'd think it would be impossible to keep my excitement discreetly tucked away in my pants, but nope. I'm miserable, because I'd rather the money go towards my credit cards. I owe this to myself, but I can't bring myself to be happy about it. How in the hell can you be depressed when you have a Home Theater? Unbelievable.

24. You can't enjoy remakes of movies, the Nintendo Entertainment System was released over 20 years ago, and your Woodstock festival was an embarrassment. Your nostalgia is starting to become a distant reality. The 80's have been thoroughly mined for pop culture gems, and they're coming for the 90's next. You'll realize this soon enough, but believe me when I say that it was far easier for our parents to explain the 80's away than it will be for us to explain the 90's to our kids. It's a ludicrous decade, Clinton or not.

25. When you were a kid, it was as good as Christmas. Now, you're lucky if your office's 'Sunshine Club' remembers to tie a mylar balloon on the wall of your cubicle. And you'll like it, too. You'll thank them profusely and carry that stupid balloon home for your wife to see. That's who you are now, and it's absolutely hilarious, even if you do contemplate suicide hourly.

26. If you think 26 sucks, 27, 28 and 29 are even worse."
-written by Ryan Zeinert of http://communistdanceparty.blogspot.com/

This amuses me.

This mom is funny.

9-9-09

It's finally here. The day when Lance and I can pretend that were the Beatles. The Rockband game and the remastered music of the Beatles comes out today. We thought about going to Wal-Mart at midnight last night, but then I knew that I would be quite pissy today. So this afternoon we will hopefully be rocking out, that is if Lance can get out of work at 10:00 today to go buy it. Happy Hump Day!

Ordered our appliances

Saturday we ordered the fridge and oven from Valley Appliance. I am very happy to have these things ordered and bought. We still need to measure the cabinets so that we can pick out the granite and the lazy susan. We also need to figure out if were going to get a hood or a microrwave to go over the oven. Maybe the seller will let us in one day this week.

A wonderful weekend

*I realize that I haven't been on here in a while but I have been crazy busy with work. We have a ton of new students, which increased the amount of work I usually have to do*.
Today is Labor Day and I am so thankful to have an extra day of rest. Our good friend from Arkansas came down for the weekend and he brought his girlfriend. We have had a blast this weekend. We watched Alabama football, had tons of food and drinks. Sunday we had lunch and dinner out and then went to "treasure stores" trying to find treasure.-we didn't find any :( Today the boys are playing guitar hero and were also getting ready to go have some lunch. Were thinking about heading to Athens to show them our new house. So I just wanted to get on here and tell everyone how wonderful this weekend has been and how great it's been to see old friends. I know Lance has really enjoyed getting to see a few of his friends. Gotta give a shout out to my little sister for getting a promotion at work. Happy Labor Day everyone!

A new semester begins

The past couple of weeks have been really busy here at work. I think that by Friday everything will be slowing down and getting back to normal. I always have a ton of things to do before a semester starts and it's nice to see the end. The Fiddler's booths are just about full. I only have 25 booths left. I am pretty happy to see them filling up. Well, I hope everyone has a great semester!

More photos

Home Inspection and Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our house. We had the home inspection and everything seems to be ok. We'll need a new roof within 5 years, so no biggie. The water heater is too close to the circuit box, but were not going to move it. The only thing that we would like the seller to fix would be the leak in the air duct under the house. So overall the house is in very good shape and we are going to continue with the buying process.

TGIF!

This is has been a very busy week. So I am truly happy that today is Friday. I don't have much planned for the weekend either. We have the home inspection tomorrow at 11:00 and a couple of friends are wanting to go shopping. I have to do the usual weekend cleaning, but I'm also thinking about sanding and staining my night stand. We have already finished one of the nightstands and I would love for them to match. We won't be able to stain the dressers until we move because we can't fit them on the balcony. That's really the only news that I have to share. Kind of boring. Oh well. Hve a pleasant weekend.

Thank you J.Crew

Lilac dress-for our couple shower, white blue dress-Rehearsal dinner *This dress is awesome to me for so many reasons. It's Tye-dye, it's white and blue-color of our wedding. Grey dress-possibly for bridal shower. I have been eyeing this dress for a couple of months. I went into the store a few weeks to see if they marked it down. I imagine that they did since it wasn't there :( But now Ive got it. Yay!
Well I ordered the dress that I mentioned yesterday. However, I bought 2 additional dresses. I hate that I did it, well not completely, but I don't really have the money. J.Crew had a special of 20% off and free shipping. So I couldn't turn it down and I bought the dresses for very good reasons.

Finally get to goof off....just a little.

I am just about completely caught up at work. Last week involved making new applications for our services. Figuring out better ways to run our office. Printing transcript for about 125 students. Making sure my co-op students were in the right class. A couple were not.
So far today has consisted of getting my Fiddler's folks placed in a booth, and of couse I have left messages for people and can't get a call back. Now, it's time for a little "me" time. I ordered my very cute something blue garter and I am now debating on ordering this dress. Through Wednesday, J.Crew is offering another 20% off final sales. I thought this dress would be perfect for our couple shower, which will probably be an outside bar-b-que. I realize that the shower won't be until April but I think this dress is great and it's affordable.

We bought our first house!

*This is our home! Isn't it the cutest place ever.*
Well I guess that's what I should say. We haven't had the home inspection yet and of course we haven't closed yet, but we came to an agreement on a price.
We spent just about the whole weekend looking for appliances. We actually left Bestbuy with a dishwasher. It's a Whirlpool Gold, Stainless steel dishwasher. Super nice! It was regularly priced $700.00, but we got it for $350.00. We had no plans of buying anything this weekend but we couldn't turn down that deal. We are probably going to buy a refrigerator and oven this weekend. HHGreg has a good sale this weekend and they said that they can hold our appliances for 2 months. So that would work out really well for us.

In need of a change

I have been debating on what to do with my hair. I have been wanting to cut my hair about shoulder length for quite some time now. Mostly because I think I need a new hair style and because my hair is somewhat damaged. I also want to darken it just a tad. Keeping my hair THIS blonde is costing me on average $600.00 per year-yea I know. The only thing holding me back is the wedding and all of the pictures. I have had my hair long for about 4 years now so I would hate to cut it short and hate it. We are having our e-pictures taken at the end of October. I'm sure that I could push the pictures back if I hate it. I know that I want to have some length for the wedding and especially the bridal portraits, but those will be next March. I feel kind of lame basing my hair style decision on my wedding. I mean after all it's just hair it will grow back.

Waiting

We made an offer yesterday morning on the house in Athens. Our realtor called us back last night at 9:30 and said that the seller wanted to talk it over with his wife. We are supposed to hear something this morning. So this is good and bad. Good, because I think our offer must have been close to what he was looking for and bad, because I'm impatient. Fiance and I have already begun talking about what new things we would like to do to the house. We are both really excited and we hope to get it. Either way we are getting a really good deal on this house and you really can't beat the location.

My fiance is so smart.

I know, I know. But he really is. We have decided that instead of buying a home that is in the 130K range we will try to find something around 100K. We think that it would be best for us, because we can take out a 15 year loan (instead of 30) and not pay too much interest. FI figured up last night that we could have a 100K house paid off in 15 years and only pay 30-35K in interest, while with the 130K house we will have paid almost 70K just in ten years alone. Then we would still have 20 years to go. We have found another house that is about a mile and half from my work. WooHoo. It is a bungalow style home with 3 bedrooms and 1 and or 2 baths. Different websites say 1 and 2. It has been remodeled and it doesn't look like it needs much work. I really really like it. I do wish that it had a garage with a working a garage door and a bigger yard. But a bigger yard just means more yard work. We are going to look at it today and I hope it looks as nice as the pictures do.

Looked at houses!

Saturday we went and looked at about 10 houses with our Realtor. There was one that we really liked. However it is about 7-10K more than we want to spend. And fiance isn't crazy about living in the semi-rural area of Harvest, Alabama. However, I really like the location. It's half way in between both of our workplaces and the houses aren't on top of each other. These are the reasons I love it: Completely renovated, fireplace, new kitchen appliances, counter tops, cabinets, bar, hardwoods in hall way, 3 BR/3BA, built-ins in one of the bedroom/office, laundry-mud room, detached two car garage, front porch, covered back porch, and sprinkler system. So yea there are plenty of reasons to love it. Fiance feels that location is most important, while I agree I also want to live in a house that I love, not one that is just in a good location. Here is the listing.

My dress

I thought I would say a little bit about my dress. I don't want to post pictures here on the bloggy because it may ruin the surprise. For those of you who know dresses, you can probably figure it out. It's a Casablanca from the 2008 collection. It's champagne with an ivory overlay. It has an empire waist, but on me (because I'm so short) it doesn't really appear that way. It should be in mid-September, which is a very good thing because I swear I can't really remember the details. I also want to go ahead and purchase my jewelry and veil.

Bridesmaid Dresses

Both of these dresses are j.crew and are still $180.00. These same dresses are in different colors (pink, yellow, peach) and they are on sell for $100.00.
I know that I need to be deciding on the BM's dresses, however, I really don't think I can. It bugs me to know that I am picking out what everyone else will wear. I know some people would laugh at that statement, because I am a self confessed control freak, but I still don't like the idea of picking out what 5 girls will be wearing. I know that I have finally come up with what colors I would like. Midnight, navy, and sapphire, mostly dark blues. But I do like some lighter blues. I think blues are very classic and sophisticated I don't what to look at my pictures 20 years from now and say "Geez, how 2009". I also would love to have my ladies buy a dress that they can wear again and again. I have three dresses in my closet, probably totalling about $600.00, that I am never going to wear again. I should also add that I want to find very affordable dresses. With all of the weddings that I have been in, the bride was gracious enough not to pick out $300.00 dresses. I have been looking online at J.Crew, Dessy, After Six, Ann Taylor and Alfred Angelo. J.crew and Ann Taylor's dresses look casual enough that they can be worn again, so this is what I'm looking into. However, (of course there's a however) both designers run about $200.00. Presently, j.crew has a huge selection of dresses on clearance, but I did find the drawback. There may not be sizes for everyone. So yea, this is pretty big drawback. Maybe I should just ask the girls to fork over the $200.00 for a dress that they will definitely be able to wear again. Hmmm... what to do?

Yesterday...

We found out that the house that we had our eyes on has already been sold and I was actually very sad. The realtor told us that she would put a list together for us. We haven't heard from her yet. Last night I took Ben, our dog, for a walk around the lake. After I returned home with Ben I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. I ran right under 2.0 miles. So, I totaled alomost 4.5 miles yesterday. Since going to the conference and then our vacation, I haven't fit very many runs into the past three weeks, and I haven't felt great. So I told myself starting August 1st that I had to get running again. Since the first I have only ran two days. Hopefully, last night gave me the motivation that I needed. Plus, we have a wedding to attend on Saturday morning, so that gives me some motivation to not look icky in the cute dress I bought.
Yesterday was the first time that we took Fatcat to the groomers. We got a call at 2:00 saying that they couldn't do anything else to her, because she had bit and kicked and scratched them. I felt terrible and dissapointed. And Fatat looks a little weird. They were able to shave her belly and her back but her legs, tail, and head are still furry. Oh well, lesson learned.

Approval

I almost forgot to tell our awesome news. We got our letter of approval for purchasing a house! WooHoo! We are so excited! We are now talking with a realtor about finding the perfect house. Right now, this is the current house that I'm in love with.

Bouquet

This peony bouquet is exactly what I would like my bouqeut to be. However, I have read that having a peony bouquet can cost anywhere from $250-$500 dollars. Um, no thanks. I have also read that garden roses are much cheaper and resemable peonies. So, I'm hoping to be able to get something like this and on the cheap. As for the bridemaids bouquet, I have no idea. I like the idea of having some yellows and purples. I think they would look amazing with the navy dresses.

Cake Inspiration

This gives a good idea of what I would like for THE cake. I want 3 or 4 round tiers, white, with a Sapphire blue ribbon placed around the bottom of the tiers. Then I would like to place some light pink flowers onto the cake. It would be pretty simple for the baker, so I may just use Publix. I can place the ribbon and flowers on myself. Now, for the type of cake-I have no idea. I would maybe like to do vanilla and chocalate cake, with some sort of filling. I also want buttercream icing.

Centerpieces

I just attempted the first centerpiece. Turned out really well. I will need to get some better scissors and some sort of fabric tape. Here is what they will look like. I will use all different fabrics and I plan on ordering flowers from Sam's club. They sell roses in bulks of 100 for around $80.00. I won't to get a bulk in hot pink and a light pink.

Just realized something

This afternoon I have been googling and estying trying to find the perfect bird topper. There are a ton for sell on esty.com, and they are all adorable. However, the cake toppers that I most adore are in the $100 plus range. So I found this tutorial. I actually have no idea what some of it is saying, but I think that I could really pull this off. I would love to be able to say "I made that!" I would be able to customize it as much as I wanted to and I'm pretty sure I could do this for super cheap. I'll post when I get started.

Our reception site

This is where we will be getting married. The reception will be just to the side of the building. I am thinking that a tent would look really great there, plus I bought the pink Martha Stewart pom poms, and I think they would look great in the tent. I think that my dress is going to look amazing with the building. I guess I'm pretty much planning my wedding around the look of this place.

The finished pomanders!

Of course there will many more to come, but here is the start of them. They are made with a 5 inch Styrofoam ball, 24-26 silk pink and creme carnations and sheer white ribbon. I used a hot glue gun to stick on the flowers and the ribbon. I got all of supplies through ebay, except for the ribbon which was bought at Micheal's

So I have something else to say.

I just had lunch with my grandmother, which is a weekly thing for us. For the past several months it has been very difficult to sit there with her for 30 minutes. See my gma is a little bit wacky, and I'm being really nice by saying only that. Today, she was talking about her only friend. Yes, she only has 1 friend. This friend of hers is a bit older and apparently hard of hearing. Gma told me that she asked her friend why her she has to say "What" after everything my gma says.?? I explained to my grandmother that there is probably a communication problem and she simple can't hear her. She didn't agree and let me know that her friend's "habit" really annoys her. I told her that when I was a child I said "what" when ever someone said something to me. I had hearing problems as a kid and my hearing did get better but I kept on saying "what" for a little while after. She rolled her eyes when I said this.? Like I was lying or that it annoyed her to know that I had the "habit". Then I told her that I was meeting with our photog next week. She asked "Well, is he in Huntsville?" I said it is a woman (and that kind of freaked her out), and she is in Joppa, AL. She said is that over there near Arab. I said yea (because it is) and she rolled her eyes again.
All I can say is that I really hope that I never become as weird and wacked out as her. I should also point out that my gma isn't very old and in great health. She has just lived alone for about 30 years and has pushed everyone out of her life. I should write more about her. There is so much to write about I could probably fill a book. Just wanted to get that out-she really pushes my buttons.

Meeting with Photog next week

I got in touch with my photographer today. I was hoping to meet with her this weekend, but she's having surgery today so I don't blame her for wanting to meet later next week. I'm just glad that our date is still available. I also worked on the pomanders last night. I really really like them now that I changed the ribbon color. I will post pictures tonight. One thing that I did realize is that I will have to order more flowers. I didn't want to do that because I figure that I'll have about 100 silk flowers left over. Oh well. Yesterday I was looking for a new bird cake topper, since the store at Gulf Shores, where I was going to buy them, went out of business. I looked on Etsy and I couldn't find the same kind of glitter birds, but I found something that I think is even more special. Feltmeupdesigns on Etsy.com makes these adorable little birds. She can make them in any color. So now I just have to figure out the colors.

The Dining Experience

I wanted to write a little bit about the food we had while on vacation. I guess I should also say that I ate quite alot of fish while I on vacation, but I never eat meat, so don't judge me to hard. Sunday night we ate at Mellow Mushroom, of course it was delicious. I had a mushroom and cheese Stromboli and it was awesome. I think our entire family was pleased. Monday night we ate the Original Oyster House, and it too was great. I had scallops, red beans and rice, and slaw. I have never ordered scallops but I'm glad that I did. I think that this dinner was my favorite! Tuesday night we ate at damn LuLu's. I really dislike LuLu's. I have never left that place happy. This time at the horrible LuLu's we waited for over an hour and a half to be seated. In the mean time we hung out at the bar and paid $9.00 for drinks. When we finally got a table I ordered the fish taco's. They were very bland and the side was some very simple chips and cup of salsa. This meal cost $15.00! If it were up to me I would never go back to this hell hole. No one enjoyed their food. Everyone else said that the chicken, burgers, fries, and fish were all very salty. Yuck! Wednesday night we ate at Calypso Joe's. This place is very cool. There is always live music outside and the people are always nice. I had a tuna steak sandwich. It was yummy. I don't think that anyone complained about this place. The food was good and the price was right. On Friday night we went to my beloved Tacky Jack's. We had to wait almost an hour and it seemed that there were a lot of snooty baby's there. But when the came everything was fine again. I love Tacky Jacks! Our last meal was on Saturday and we went to Lillian's. The pizza looked really good but I had a burnt on the bottom Stromboli. Someone ordered a pasta dish and sent it back because the noodles were not. But I don't know for sure that that was true. The service here wasn't that great, it took a while for a food, and the food was blah. If I were to grade this place based on stuffed pizza's and pasta I would give it a "C".
So if you travel down to Alabama's beaches you might want to check out Tacky Jack's, Mellow Mushroom, Calypso Joe's, and the Original Oyster House.

Back in town.

We got back home early Sunday morning. The vacation was excellent. The weather was great-actually not too humid. It was a little cramped in the condo and (of course) I butted heads with a family member. But it was to be expected. Lance and I found an inflatable boat. Originally known as the Club 300. But we quickly changed the name to the Booz Cruise. It was a lot of work to get the Booz Cruise to sail but it was completely worth it, and it gave my arms a nice workout. We ended up playing put-put once. Thank you Jesus! I really do not like put-put. The kids were pretty much on their best behavior and the trip was a success.

Before I left for the beach I had my AACE summer conference. It was in Montgomery, Alabama and we stayed at the Embassy Suites. First things first...the hotel offered a great FREE omelet, pancake, fruit etc.. buffet and a FREE drink reception from 5:30-7:30. Having been offered this I took full advantage. We heard a couple of pretty good speakers and overall the conference was about how to reach students using technology. It gave me some good ideas about using twitter and facebook, however that isn't really my job. My boss would have to set it up and keep it and I don't think he wants to do either.

I'm starving-so I'm going to eat. Tomorrow I want to write about the restaurants we visited at the beach. Some are definitely worth mentioning.

Last day at work...

Tomorrow I will be leaving for a conference and won't be back until Friday afternoon. The conference is AACE-Alabama Association of Colleges and Employers. Then on Sunday I'll be leaving for the beach-Orange Beach. I still have a lot left on my paper but I have to have it completed by the 26th. Boo! I was hoping to have it completed before we left for the beach but with work being so busy I haven't had time to work on it. I don't have any updates on wedding planning. I did see a wedding being set up here at the college and they were setting the reception tables and chairs up in the court yard. I have heard that people had their receptions there but I didn't think that it would be very nice, but it actually was. On the plus side, it may save us some money. I feel like if we have the reception on the front lawn, then we will need a tent=More money. But if we have it in the court yard, there will be shade under the trees. Something to consider. Now I got to get on my paper.

Ugh! Wish I was off today.

I got up on time so that was a plus. I had to stop and get some gas this morning and of course got the slowest pump ever. I only had patience for one gallon-it was that slow. I got to work and had 8 people waiting on me for Fiddler's sign up. All of this going on while I'm feeling nauseated. Ugh!!! I have felt bad for almost 4 hours. I think it's because I took my BC kinda late, 10:30 and it's a different kind. Because the State of Alabama apparently doesn't agree with paying for birth control. I had to get Ortho-TriCylcen because it is the cheapest BC. I'm used to taking the Ortho-TriCyclen Lo because the doctor gave me a bunch of sample packs. Since I'm taking this new BC I think it's too many hormones. I hope I feel better after lunch because I have to get started on paper. This is all the writing I have patience for.

Sleepy

TGIF!! It has been a very busy week and I am so glad that the weekend is almost here. This weekend we are planning to go to Summerfest. It's in downtown Huntsville on Saturday evening. Looks like fun. My only other plans for the weekend. Are of course the usual, but I hope to work on my paper a little bit and maybe cook something on Sunday. I haven't cooked anything in a while. Have a happy weekend!

Mutli-tasker

Just call me the multi-tasker or at least that's what one of my co-workers called me. I have been working on the Fiddler's letters all week-they go out tomorrow. Plus, I have been training in Veteran's Affairs a lot this week too. Also, we have had a lot of activity this week in our office. I guess it's all the new students and of course they all want to sign up for co-op, so that they can work on the Arsenal. I really would like to tell all of these people good luck and go ahead and keep looking for a job. To get a job with the Arsenal you have to be a veteran (to better your chances), have a GPA of 3.0 or better and have lots of business or accounting classes. I actually had a girl call me last week and ask about what jobs we had right now. As I started telling her the three degreed jobs that we had, she stopped me and said I'm only interested in government jobs. Yea, you and everybody else is what I wanted to say to her. It seems that all of our students feel that if they graduate they should be employable to the government. They stick up their noses to any private agencies and it really erks me!! Sure I work for the state, but if I didn't I wouldn't turn down private company jobs.

3 Day Weekend

I found my wedding shoes! I got them at DSW for $59.95. I really love them! I'm happy to have found silver shoes. At least I will be able to wear them again. Lance also bought me something awesome this weekend. He got me a quilt from Anthropologie. We also ate at Cantina Laredo on Friday night. It had a nice atmosphere and the food on the menu looked good. But they offered no vegetarian dinners. I ordered the cheese and onion enchiladas. When I got them they had a meat sauce. I was pretty bummed about it. Lance said that I could just take it home and he would eat it, but we were having a nice dinner and I didn't want to be a snob and not eat it. For July forth we got to visit with Mom and some friends. Overall, it was pretty good weekend.

Woke up late, Chinese dinner was a bad idea, and now this!

So my tummy is really bothering me this morning. Lance's boss wanted to take the employees out to dinner last night. We ate at China Buffet in Madison. It was actually pretty good. Well, Lance didn't think so, but he doesn't like any Chinese food. This morning my tummy has decided to not like Chinese food either. After dinner, about an hour and half later I decided to go for a run and I felt great during and after, so I'm not sure why this is happening this morning. Plus tomorrow is a state holiday and half the staff took off today, so all I can think about is getting the heck out of here. However, I have a much needed hair appointment this afternoon here in Athens so it would be pretty dumb to go home early then drive all the way back. Now for the "and now this"...Lance and I checked our credit report this morning. It updates once a month and today was the day. My credit is still fine (can't tell if it changed because I didn't write down the last scores). However, Lance's went down :( So now we are stuck, .... again. I thought this month would be it. Lance is convinced that because of all of our "shopping" for a loan it has lowered his score. I am not convinced that it would have caused a major blow to his report. But I'm no expert. So, now what do we do. I am tempted to apply through the same company that we have been working with, but I know that I will be devastated if it doesn't turn out the way I want it to. I guess if we don't try again now well have to wait until the very end of the year or the beginning of 2010. Ugghhh! This is very aggravating. I feel like we have done everything in our power to make this work. I still feel like it couldn't hurt anymore than it already has to apply one more time. I have heard that you have 14 or 30 or 45 days to shop for a loan. All of our inquiries are from May 2009 and 1 from June 2009. If all of this is true aren't those dates close enough to not hurt our credit. Who knows???

www.whiteaisle.com

White Aisle is an amazing website that sells jewelry, paper goods, and wedding favors. I recently stumbled on this site and was pleasantly surprised to see vintage inspired jewelry with a cheap price tag. I really really love these earrings. The price isn't all that bad either and I can see myself wearing these again after the wedding. I also love this bracelet. It cost a little more than I would like to spend on a bracelet but I think it's gorgeous. I also love a couple of the pearl bracelets. I don't plan on buying any jewelry until my dress is in my possession. I can't exactly remember the details of my dress so I need to wait on jewelry.
I have also been thinking about BM gifts. I want to get them something that they will actual use and/ or wear again. I have been thinking about candles, totes, housewares, and jewelry. I may just get them a variety of these things.

My trip to Michael's

I went to Michael's for the very first time on Sunday. It is a great store. Better than Hobby Lobby. But unfortunately the A/C was broken and I was a hot mess the entire time I was in there. I did manage to leave with a matted picture frame that the wedding guest will be able to sign when they arrive. I also bought a hot glue gun, crocheting needles and four spools of ribbon. I bought all of these things to make the pomanders. On my first attempt I tried to push the ribbon through the tiny hole left by the crochet needle. This did not work. I will be getting my $2.99 back for the needles. So then I decided to hot glue the silk carnations onto the Styrofoam and then hot glue the ribbon to the top. Ta da! This did work however, I used 26 carnations when I allotted only 16 per ball and I do not like the ribbon. So I will also be returning what I didn't use. I think I want something more sheer. So I have decided that I am going to (hopefully) take off the carnations already glued on and try to space them out more. I only paid $18.00 for 100 carnations but I don't want to spend anymore money on flowers. If I have to, I will only use 10 balls instead of 12. No big deal. I am lining the aisle with these and I can just have 5 rows. I am hoping to get one completely finished on Friday since I'm off. I will post a picture when I have it pretty and completed. I think they are going to be really cute out in front of Founders Hall.

For the month of July (I am buying wedding items per month, since I get paid once a month) I am going to buy this garter. I haven't 100% made up my mind but I really love this. While we are at the beach I plan on stopping in at Barefoot Cottage. I'm not sure what kind of store it is, but they sell the cute glittery birds that I want as a cake topper. They are made by goldbug studio. They have a website, but it sucks. I am also booking the photographer. So garter, cake topper, photographer for the month of July. I guess that's enough for one month.

Also, if you haven't seen The Hangover-Go see it! It's ridiculously funny.

RIP Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died yesterday at the age of 50. I have never been a die hard fan of MJ but I can honestly say that the little, and I mean very little, 80's music that I like came from him. I hope that people will remember him as an artist, The King of Pop. I don't believe that the last decade or so of his life were the years that he would want the world to remember. RIP Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawsett.

Moving on...Today is Friday and you know what that means! The weekend is right around the corner. My BF Amber is wanting us to go to Florence to see her friend's band play on Saturday. My boss's daughter is also getting married at 3:00 on Saturday. I'm pretty excited to see the wedding. Her caterer and florist are both businesses that I am probably going to use. So it will be nice to taste and see how everything looks. I think our plans for tonight are to go see the Hangover and we'll probably eat dinner. I would love to go to Sweet Peppers Deli. They just opened a few days ago, and this was one of our favorite places to eat when we lived in Florence, AL. I'm not sure what's on the agenda for Sunday. Every time I think of a possible lazy Sunday I think of this song. Geez I love that song and video. Anyways, I have to work on my paper some on Sunday and look over the Veterans Affairs handbooks that I have. Plus I'm hoping that its sunny so that we can have some pool time. Then of course Sunday nights are reserved for watching Bridezillas. That show is crazy.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Think I might turn into a burrito.

So I feel kinda lousy today. Yesterday I ate taco bell for lunch and Casa Blanca for dinner. Not sure what I was thinking. After dinner I felt bad for what I had eaten all day so I went for a run, and it didn't feel so hot. Today for lunch all I'm having is a salad and a small salad at that. Consisting of only lettuce, carrots, and a little bit of cheese. If I get hungry during the day I'm just going to drink as much water as possible.
There isn't really anything new with me. Today I have to write up committee notes, watch powerpoints, do assignment, and write a page for my paper. Not really that much to work on, but recently I have felt so dang lazy. I get to work and just stare at my monitor. What gives!?
I talked with Erin, my Matron of Honor, and were planning a day to go look at BM's dresses. I'm pretty set on tea-length, midnight blue dresses. And talking about BM's, I really don't like the term/word bridesmaids. Particularly-maids. I wish I could call them something else. I'll have to google something and see if there is anything else to call them.

Nothing New

I am extremely tired today. It's very rare that I will wake up and think that I absolutely don't want to go to work. However, today is an exception. I couldn't fall asleep last night because I didn't feel very good.
I didn't get very much accomplished this weekend. I did manage to wash most of the clothes, the sheets and turn in my assignment. I also ran about 5 miles this weekend. Lance and I spent the entire afternoon (yesterday) by the pool. It was wonderful. I think I must be tired from being in the sun pretty much all weekend. On Saturday we had Lance's family's get together. We were outside for about five hours. I was miserable by the time we left.
I am looking forward to this week though. I have a good feeling that I will get a lot of things started or finished. Today will be pretty busy though. I have a committee meeting at 10:00 am. Boo! Then I will begin training in Veterans Affairs. I hope to get started on my paper today, since I am a week behind now. Plus Amber comes over tonight and we usually go eat something yummy. I wish I could fit a run in today-but I'm not sure that there will be enough time. Now I have to get started with my day.

Very close to a miracle...

Okay well maybe not a miracle, but I am extremely proud of myself for running 2 1/2 miles yesterday without stopping. It's not a problem for me to run the 2 1/2 miles with a couple of very short walking breaks. Just to get my breathing controlled. But yesterday I ran around the lake without walking!! It felt so good! Plus I had just finished eating a big plate of pasta. I thought for sure I would be barfing in no time, but I felt great.
Since I have been reading "Dead Until Dark", by Charlaine Harris I have become extremely interested in the HBO series True Blood. I want to start the second book in the series this weekend.

More job duties

I had to show the veil that I have recently fallen in love with. It is called a Mantilla and it originated in Spain, sixteenth century. I absolutely love it! The Pampered Bride store sells them in white and ivory for around $50.00 dollars. They look to be of nice quality. The only thing that scares me off is ordering it and it not being the right color. But it could be worth paying s/h just to see how it would look with the dress.

I just met with the Vice President of Student Affairs(my boss) about cross-training in the area of Veterans Affairs. I will be working a half day a week and I am really excited about it. Sure, I will have to rearrange my schedule and may have to do more homework at home; but I think it will be totally worth it. My co-worker doesn't see this like I do. She just thinks that I won't do my current duties which include all of the following: answering the phone, making coffee, checking emails, helping students register with our office, and sending invitations for our two job fairs. Yes I know I have a super crazy busy job. Ha! So anyhoo, that's just the way she sees things and I have to deal with. I have also received my first three inquiries about the Fiddlers Convention. Hopefully I answered the questions correctly and didn't give wrong information.

Oh! I almost forgot I received my glass vases from ebay seller aecandles and my 200 silk carnations from ebay seller roseys_garden. The vases look... well like vases, but the flowers are better than I expected! I hope that by next weekend I can start a pomander. I still have to buy pins and ribbons and I doubt that I'll have time before next weekend. When I complete one I'll post pictures.