Country Club Dress Attire..

Hello ladies!  Hope you're all having a great week.

Mr. and I met w/ our amazing stationary designer this weekend & we couldn't be happier. We landed the most amazing and creative person on the planet to design these for us. Each and every product she comes up with blows us out of the water.

I still can't wait to show you our save the dates and I will soon, I promise! :)

There is one thing that she and I are stumped on though and I'm reaching out to you fabulous ladies for help.

As you know, our ceremony and reception are taking place at a Country Club.. So there is a strict dress code. We are stumped on a polite, unique way to tell everyone that they need to dress in "Country Club Attire" - we also know that a lot of people don't know what country club attire means.

Our club has the following dress code - No denim, Men must wear collared shirts, and women must be in lengthier dresses/skirts. 

Our designer thought it might be fun to insert a page that has "Additional Information" and say something like

Please be aware the Country Club Attire is required on Country Club Property.

Country Club Attire 

- Noun

No denim, collared shirts required for men, and lengthy dresses required for women.

What do you all think? Do any of you have any ideas?!? :)

Christmas

Growing up in my parents house as a child around the holidays was amazing. 

My mom has a love for all things Christmas. 

 

Every year the day after thanksgiving we'd rock out to Christmas music & start setting up the house to bring in the Christmas Cheer. 

My mom had everything! 

She has 20 bows to hang on the stair case, she has a beautiful wreath hanger, and she even has a dancing Santa that sings "Rocking around the Christmas Tree" but most of all she has the BEST ornaments for the tree!

This made decorating the tree the most fun!

Every year my mom picked out ornaments for my sister and I. 

They were always very similar but often times very different reflecting our personalities. 

Every year my sister and I were allowed to open one gift on Christmas eve...

Every year we begged our mom to give us our ornaments so we could hang them.

 

Her goal was for the two of us to have enough ornaments when we moved out to fill our tree and have it look different.

I don't think she owns a single bulb ornament for her tree.

My mom has passed this tradition along and is now doing the same for my niece and nephew.

This is a tradition that I will carry on when Mr. and I have children.  The ornaments were and still are so special to me and my sister. I can't imagine my children not having that same experience. 

What are traditions you will carry on? What traditions have you created?

Wedding Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! :)

It has been a while since I updated you all on our wedding plans.. There is a reason for that so before I jump into the update I figured I'd explain to you why I haven't been sharing much.

As excited as I am about our wedding and telling you every little detail I also want those who come to be excited about the unknown. I don't want everyone who is attending our wedding to know what it's going to be like before they even arrive. I feel like that takes a lot of the fun out of it for guests.

I also realize that everyone has different visions when I describe a specific detail. This also gives people an idea of what they think they're going to see when in reality it might be something different. So, with the risk of making our wedding sound more glamorous than it really will be on the day, I've kind of decided to keep quiet about some things. I'm not saying that our wedding won't be  beautiful and glamorous because it will be but I don't want anyone to envision something and then look back and think "that isn't what I expected".

I realize that most people aren't as anal as I am and aren't going to be judging my wedding as harshly as I'll judge my own, or sadly, the wedding's I have been to since we got engaged. Let's be honest here as a newly engaged or newly wedded woman we have a tendency to look at things and think "I will NOT be doing that" or "Well, I didn't do that and my wedding was better"... And at the end of the day making those mental notes of what you want and don't want is great because that is what makes your wedding your own! Each wedding is beautiful in it's own way because it reflects the couple.

I know that I have one good friend who reads this blog on occasion, Hi D! :) I know that D is one of the most NON-judgmental people in this world, seriously, I've never heard her say a bad word about anybody, and she gets me and my vision so I know that she's probably envisioning something very similar to what will be on the wedding day, but I want her to have some element of surprise. I want her to be able to walk into the reception when everything is set up and be able to take it all in.

So, with that being said, I've decided to start sharing less about the actual wedding. I'll be sharing less about the food, less about the favors, less about the cake, less about the flowers, less about the lighting, the DJ and the overall feel of the wedding.

So what am I going to reveal? The bridal party's attire, the stationary, the florist (& maybe some inspiration), and i might give some hints as what to the favors are...

I'll also start posting links to weddings I loved that have some sort of inspiration for me. I'll keep you all posted on the bridal showers, and of course the bachelorette party too! :)

6

6 MONTHS that is until our Wedding.

One year ago Saturday, Mr. asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.

I happily said yes! 

Sunday was 6 months until we tie the knot!

It's crazy to me how fast the last year has gone by.

I am so blessed and I can not wait for our wedding day!

Boys Attire..

I decided to do this post a day early.. I have a little free time today so I thought I'd give you all something to read and vote on! :)

As we've started to get further into wedding planning the attire for the men in the wedding has really been weighing heavy on my mind. I've been debating between tuxedo's and suits. I do know that I want the guys wearing gray though which is a helpful. Our main color is eggplant purple. Softer shades of cream, purple, pink and orange are going to be the colors in my bouquet while the bridesmaids will have strictly color. The alter bouquet's will have a mix of all of the colors as will the centerpieces. The overall look is more vintage chic which is why I really want gray on the guys.

Now since you're aware that the overall look is vintage chic and have an idea of what the floral and colors are.. I'm taking votes.

Suits?

Or Tuxedo's?

**all images via link

I'm still alive!

Hello Ladies! 

I'm still alive, I promise! - Thank you to those of you who emailed me to check in on me! :)

As I mentioned a few weeks back work has me swamped right now and while I'm thankful for the work & my future w/ my company I'm exhausted by the end of the day!

I do have some news as far as wedding planning goes and plan to do a big Wedding Wednesday update. 

I'll be discussing:

The Save The Dates 

The Florist

The Officiant

The DJ

&

The boys attire :D

I'm excited to update all of you! 

I hope you're having a great Monday!

Nov 7, 2009

**Warning: This is a really long post but I promise you'll get a laugh out of it if you stick it out!**

 

Good morning ladies! A few weeks ago I mentioned that Mr. got a new truck, and in that post I also mentioned that I didn't want to get stuck on top of the mountain again.. Yes, again, this year! So I thought that I'd take the time today to tell you all that story! :)

It was Nov. 7, 2009, Mr. had proposed the night before & we were headed to his sisters house to celebrate his nieces birthday. Now keep in mind that only one of his siblings knew that we were engaged out of 4 & his parents did not know. So we got up around 8am and loaded up the truck we were moving a long quite nicely. Well his sister lives 3 hours away and we have to go over a mountain to get to her house.

source

Mt. Hood typically has snow from October to April - so we knew that the pass could be bad and that the best plan of attack was to take the truck because it had four wheel drive. We'd been on the road for about an hour & half when we began to make the climb on the mountain. We were about 45 minutes out of cell range when the following conversation occurs:

 

Mr: Oh Shit.

Me: What?

Mr: I just lost my power steering...!
Me: That's not funny.

Mr: Yeah, it wouldn't be if I were kidding.

Me: Seriously?

Mr: Yes! I have NO power steering right now.

Me: WHY THE F*** ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS?! DONT YOU KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND JUST DRIVE UNTIL YOU CAN PULL OVER!?!?! Oh my god we're going to die! 

Mr: Seriously, calm down. We're not going to die.

 

So we find a place to pull over after going around a few corners & Mr. says that the belt came off but he has an extra.. Then he explains that he's going to need my help putting it on.. The following conversation occured:

Me: I don't even have a coat!! I'm in heels.. Are you KIDDING?!

Mr: No, I'm not kidding. If you want to go anywhere today I'm going to need help.

So, I get out and freeze my ass off to try to help - and i'm not strong enough. THANKFULLY this sweet couple pulled over to help & they had tools! YAY!!

So we finally get the belt back on & Mr. gets in the car & says:

Mr: I think we should keep going.

Me: Then you're going on your own. I'll hitch hike back to town. Don't test me.

Mr: We're half way there.

Me: Ya, and only 10 minutes from a store down the Mt that has a phone so we can call AAA!!

Mr: I think we'll be fine.

Me: You're nuts! I'm not going to risk getting stuck at the top of the mt with no way down.

Mr: Fine.

So he turns around & heads back down the mountain.

Maybe a mile later the belt flies off again... 

He puts it back on.

Another mile - it's off again.

He puts it back on.

Another mile - it's off again.

 

So he decides we'll drive down the Mt. without the belt until we can get to the store. We get it back on at the store and maybe 100 yards from the store it flies back off.

I cry. Like sobbing. I walk back to the store - in heels, in the snow - & call my daddy from the store. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Daddy, can you come get me!? We're stuck on top of the Mt - Mr.'s truck broke.

Daddy: I'm on my way to a football game. I'm not coming to get you. 

Me (sobbing): Football is more important than your daughter stuck on the Mt.?

Daddy (laughing): You're with Mr. - you're fine!

 

I walk back to the truck & Mr. says that we'll just drive the 45 min to the next town with out the belt.. 

I'm game. The next town has cell service & we can call AAA.

An hour & a half later we arrive in the town of Zig Zag. It took us so long because we drove approx 2 mph in the emergency lane with the AC on in the dead of winter to keep the truck from over heating with out the belt! Ya, I was not happy.

We pull over and call AAA and they tell us the tow truck will arrive in about an hour. So we decided to eat at Subway and wait in there where it was warm. 

While we're waiting I call Mr.'s sister so she knows what is going on considering we should have made it to their house about an hour earlier. 

She then sends me a text that said something like "M (mr's niece) says it's okay if you can't make it. She understands and doesn't want you driving if it's not safe!" M is only 7! I cried - like sobbing uncontrollably & wrote back to assure her we'd be there even if it took us all night (which it did).

Finally the tow truck arrived and we loaded up the truck to tow it home. About an hour later we made it home. We transferred everything from the truck to my car, went potty, and hit the road - again! It was now like 130pm.

We made it about 2 hours when Mr. decided he should pull off and put my chains on because the roads were getting bad. 

I got out too and tried to help him for about 10 min when I finally realized I wasn't helping and decided it would be best for me to just sit in the car and stay warm. So Mr. is still working hard to get the first chain on when I realize that there is a snow plow coming and shooting the snow directly at us! I tried so hard to get Mr.'s attention but he kept working. The snow plow finally reached us & shot snow directly on him. He had snow in his ears! He was soaking wet & he looks up to see me in the car laughing so hard that I'm crying! 

I guess he didn't find it so funny.

So he gave up on the chains and we got back on the road. The rest of the trip was smooth and we made it to his sisters around 7pm. They had dinner & drinks ready for us when we walked in the door. 

The rest of the story will have to be continued Monday - how his family found out we were engaged! :)

 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Saks off 5th Ave!!!!!!!!

Last night we went to dinner with Mr.'s siblings.. and a little birdy told me (aka my SIL) that our local mall recently got a Saks off 5th Ave & they have Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, & Brian Attwood for $250 dirt cheap...... HELLO WEDDING SHOES!

Sorry to have been MIA this week.. I've written posts I just haven't posted them. I'm SUPER busy right now and probably will be for the next 6-9 months with work. All GOOD things but that means I might be a not so great blogger for a while.

Please bare with me :)

I am still reading  your blogs and am going to work on posting a few times a week even if that means I have to schedule time to blog! 

:) 

 

Happy Tuesday!

So What Wednesday

Good Morning, ladies! I don't know about you all but I'm so ready for the weekend.

I've been battling a cold all week and it's finally getting the best of me. I guess that is what happens when all you do is go, go, go, huh?

I'm very excited to say that the lovely Mrs. Dew has provided a link to link up with her on So What Wednesday! You should all go check it out and play along! 

So What Wednesday :

• So what if I'm wearing jeans to work today.. If you don't like it Mr. Boss Man I'll let ya know where to stick it.
• So what if I have bags & dark circles under my eyes today.. I needed that extra hour of sleep this morning & I'm out of concealer.
• So what if I thought about calling in today just to sleep.
• So what if I haven't been shopping in MONTHS - the wedding budget is loving me.
• So what if I had to purchase a second wedding gown - it's my damn wedding and I'll have what I want - after all WE are paying for it!
• So what if we're not aiming to please anyone but ourselves when it comes to our wedding.. If you have a problem with it then I'll remind you that you had your day and now we're going to have ours! 
• So what if I'm so ready to be married and done with the wedding planning - isn't that what the big day is about anyway? Marrying your best friend...? 

Courtney over at Courtney's Organized Chao's  tagged me in the following questions. You should all go check her out too!

1. What is your favorite book?

My favorite book .. Tough question. I love to read. I love anything written by Nicholas Sparks. The first book I ever read and loved is:

This book today is still one of my favorites.

That along with the Twilight Series - LOVE

2. What are you passionate about?

I am passionate about a lot of things. Right now, though, I'd have to say I am most passionate about my career.. I am working SO hard to educate people about something that I feel is very important. Unfortunately, I can't discuss that on the blog as it's a big no no with my company. If I could sit down with each and every one of you though I'd be ecstatic.

3. What is something you would learn how to do?

I would love to learn how to make beautiful jewelry! Doesn't it sound fun to be able to create your own gorgeous pieces to wear all the time?

4. Which came first the chicken or the egg?

Honestly, I'm too tired & run down to think this through BUT since Adam & Eve came before the egg that made the baby I'm going to say the Chicken. 

5. What is your favorite leisure activity?

Sleeping! LOL I LOVE naps!!

 

6. Describe a time you got in trouble.

Oh my, when I was 4, I asked my Momma to buy me glitter - she said no, so being the little sneaky girl I was I stuck the glitter in my pocket with the intent of putting it up on the conveyor belt with out my mom noticing, well I forgot to put it on the conveyor belt.. We got home & my sister found me playing with it & asked my mom why she didn't get her any... OH boy, my mom came running in, took it away, called the manager at the store, explained what had happened. She also told the manager that she was bringing me back & that she didn't want her to go easy on me.. She wanted her to teach me a lesson.. So she took me back to the store, with the glitter in hand, & POLICE are there.. The manager says to me "Do you know what you did? You STOLE from our store. Do you know what I can do to you? I can send you with those police men & have you taken away from you mommy and daddy! Is that what you want?!?!" I of course am bawling my eyes out and saying "NO!!!" so the lady said "Ok, then promise me you will NEVER steal something again!" I promised and I've kept that promise. In fact I've never even THOUGHT about stealing something since then. 

7. What about your personality do you wish you could change?

I would like to have better control of my temper with the Mr. I often times get irritated over really small things and he is so patient with me about everything. It really bothers me and it's something I'm working on changing. 

8. What are you vain about?     

I am vain about clothing. I love my designer jeans. I don't look at others who don't wear sevens, citizens, paige premiums poorly at all but I won't wear anything but designer jeans! They're so much more comfortable & they really do last longer! Although, maybe that has more to do with the number of jeans I cycle through? 

I am so not with it today so I'm going to skip tagging 8 people BUT if you want to play along, please do! 

Courtney, thank you for tagging me! :) I've really enjoyed reading your blog and am looking forward to hear more about your wedding plans! 

Prayers, The Dress, & Weekend Plans!

Good Morning Ladies!

First of all I'd like to ask those of you who pray to pray today for my cousin Amber's beautiful, sweet daughter Amaya. You can read more about them here.

Today the state of Florida will make a decision on Amaya's behalf that could be a huge victory for our family. All we want for this baby girl is to be raised by and around people who have loved her since the day she was born. We know that's what her Momma would want too. Today we will find out if that is possible.

If you're not one to pray well wishes are greatly appreciated too!

 

Now, on to the fun stuff! 

THE DRESS!

I know so many of you are wondering if I found it yesterday.. First I want to tell you about my amazing experience & then I'll answer that question! :) 

Tuesday I went to a local Bridal Boutique (If you live in PDX area let me know and I'll tell you the name of it, although, I'm sure you've heard of it!) just to browse and see if they could get me in for an appointment sometime soon. The girls were amazingly sweet - all of them! The OWNER walked me through the shop and showed me all of the different gowns, designers, and styles. She was so sweet!! 

I told her why I was in and that I was looking for a new gown. She was really sympathetic and really wanted to know what it was about my gown that I didn't love to ensure that they knew what I wasn't looking for in a gown.

I described one that I had seen but they didn't carry the designer - well she found one that looked very similar the only difference was the neck line. 

 

So, I set up an appointment and went in last night with my mom, SIL Allison, and best friends Brianne & Allison.

I was there about 30 min early because traffic was a breese so my consultant started me early. She was FABULOUS. There wasn't a single dress that she pulled in that I didn't like something about. She totally took what I had told her and found the perfect gown - and it happened to be the FIRST gown I tried on when it was just me and my mom. 

Well, the girls got there and we kept trying on other gowns. They all loved several of them but my mom and I kept saying "Ya, I like it but not as much as the first gown.." The girls were like "I want to see the FIRST gown then!!" 

I narrowed it down to 3 gowns that I loved and went in backward order from what I considered second runner up, runner up & The ONE!

Well they all loved the second runner up, then they loved the runner up more, then they LOVED THE ONE! Once I put that on they all said "OH my gosh! I totally see why this has been the one to beat!"

I didn't want to take the gown off. I seriously would have left the store wearing it if they would have let me!!

The best part - it was HALF of the NEW budget that the Mr. gave me. The second best part - it was only $125 MORE than the original dress I had purchased. That also kinda frustrates me to know that I bought a beautiful designer gown for $125 more than a DB gown.. BUT it's ok because I have the dress of my dreams now!

I'm so happy and relieved!

Tonight is D & R's going away party! I'm SO sad to see them leave on Monday but I'm also so happy for them. R will be able to play a lot of golf and D is interviewing for an AWESOME job down there! Pray for her too that she gets the position! ;) We will miss them but we also know that they'll be back in the spring for the summer! & at Christmas. Plus we can't complain - we'll have a place to go visit too! :)

We have a busy busy weekend ahead of us! Tomorrow AM the Mr. and his Bro & SIL Allison are coming over at 6, yes, 6AM! for us to leave and head down to Corvallis for some Beaver Believer Football!

 

 

Allison & I apparently do not have to worry about a thing. I am told we get to sit back, relax & drink our coffee w/ baileys while the boys cook! Sounds like a good time to me, right? ;)

Happy Friday! :)

Hope you all have a great weekend.

10 Day Blog Challenge - Day One

So many of the bloggers that I follow have been participating in the 10 Day Blog Challenge. I've decided to jump on board a little late! 

I'm not sure who started this so I'm not going to give credit to anyone at this time but if any of you know where this originated please let me know. :)

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now.
Day Two: Nine things about yourself that most people don't know.
Day Three: Eight things you couldn't live without.
Day Four: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.
Day Five: Six things you wish you could change or you wish you’d never done.
Day Six: Five people who mean a lot to you.
Day Seven: Four turn offs.
Day Eight: Three turn ons.
Day Nine: Two words that describe your life right now.
Day Ten: One confession.

So today being my first day I'll be saying writing about 10 things I'd like to say to 10 different people.

1) Grandma D - Thank you for being such a wonderful example of a loving, caring, and strong woman. You've loved me even when you didn't have to. Despite the fact that I am your "step"-granddaughter you've never showed me OR any of your other step-grandchildren less love and support than you do your grandkids. I know you love us all equally and that never in a million years would you consider any of us step-grandkids. I have never met a more caring person than you and I doubt I ever will. I strive each and every day to be more like you and I hope that I make you proud. I love you!

2) Grandma M - Thank you for showing me what not to do to my children and grandchildren. I have never known someone to be so selfish and I hope that I don't turn out to be anything like you. The favoritism that you have shown to your kids and grandkids is absolutely ridiculous to me. I know that my dad makes excuse for your behavior as do Uncle R & Uncle B but I just want you to know that us "B girls" all know your true colors. Your daugher-in-law's, yes, all 3 of them, see you for who you are too. The only thing I can be grateful to you for is my daddy and my uncles. I thank God daily that Granny raised them because she is the reason they are who they are today. 

3) Daddy - Thank you for being the greatest daddy ever to me and S. I know you have your regrets with C but you really can't blame yourself for how he turned out. I am so grateful for all of the sacrifices you've made for me over the years. I know I disappointed you when I stopped pitching and I want to thank you for getting over that and loving me so much. You're by far the greatest dad and grandpa in the world. 

4) Brianne - Oh, where do I even start? You have been the greatest friend to me since kindergarten. I honestly can not imagine my life with out you in it. Thank you for being the shoulder to cry on if I needed it, the person to slap me sideways if I've done something that I'd later regret, the person who keeps all of my secrets, the person who makes me laugh the hardest, the person who knows me better than I know myself, and most importantly the person that I've grown to love more and more each day. I can't tell you enough how much I love you. You're more like a sibling to me than a friend. I know that no matter what happens in life that you will always have my back and I know that you know that I will always have yours.

5) Lindsay - Thank you for being such a wonderful person. Thank you for accepting my apology and treating me no different than you did before. You have no idea how much you, Spencer & the kids mean to me. I really do look up to you and am so thankful for everything you've done for me.

6) Mom - I love you. Thank you for being so supportive of me in everything that I do. I know you don't always agree with my decisions but I also know that no matter what you'll support me.  Thank you for always trusting me to make the best decision for me! I hope that you start to take more time to yourself. I am so glad that you're finally back to your happy weight. I'm proud to tell people that you're my mom. I'm thankful for the way that you raised me. I'm thankful for the tough love you gave us at times. You're the reason S & I are who we are today.

7) Hollie & Sammy - You two are by far the most amazing little children on this planet. I love you both more than you could ever imagine. I hope that as you get older that you will both feel you are able to talk to me about anything - drugs, girls/boys, school.. ANYTHING. I hope that you know that I will never judge you and will always be supportive of you but also know that I am your aunt and I will always try to guide you in the BEST direction. Hollie, I hope you know how beautiful you are. I hope that you start to understand that it's okay to be Mexican. There is NOTHING wrong with being Mexican and there is nothing wrong with your heritage. I know that right now you're struggling with that and I hope that someday soon that changes for you. Sammy, I hope you never lose your goofiness. I know you're only 3 but you're seriously hilarious!

8) Adam - You're amazing. Each and every day you strive to provide for us. You go above and beyond to make sure that I'm taken care of but above that you make sure that I am happy. I can not put into words how much I love you. I could tell you that 100 times in an hour and it wouldn't be enough. I can not wait for the day when I can say I'm your wife. What an honor it is to know that I snagged you! I can't wait for the day when we bring a baby home from the hospital - well, I can but you know what I mean! You are my best friend, my confidant, my rock, and my sanity. I love you!!

9) Katie Jane - Since the day you were born you've been such a wonderful person. I know that high school is rough and that you're struggling with the peer pressure of a lot of things right now. I also know how incredibly strong you are! I know that you have the ability to say no to drugs, sex, drama.. What I want you to know though on top of that is holding strong to your morals will pay off. I promise you that 10 years from now no one will remember the fact that you were a good girl but they will remember the "bad girls" and not fondly. I also want you to know that you are BEAUTIFUL!! I'm so grateful that you're going to be standing up with me on my wedding day. You mean SO much to me. I love you bugs!!

10) Sarah - I know that we haven't always been close growing up. We're so different in so many ways. I know that as a little girl I drove you nuts and you always thought of me as your annoying little sister. I also know that I took a lot of attention away from you as a child because I could. I'm grateful for the fact that we have gotten closer over the past couple of years and I'm so grateful for Hollie & Sammy. I hope you know that while we may not have a lot in common we're sisters & that will always ensure that we have a tight bond. I hope you also know how much Sam means to me. I love you.

I'm going to do one more just because I have somethings that I have to say to one more person.

11) Chris - I guess I'll start off by saying that I HATE the way that you treat dad. I hate the fact that you've put strain on my parents relationship so many times. I hate the fact that you act is if your mother is a saint.. SHE CHEATED ON OUR DAD!! That is the reason they're not together anymore. So you can stop blaming dad for their marriage failing.
I also want to tell you to grow up! You're 39 years old not 22. Stop asking dad for money. Also, you're not too good for McDonald's - get a job and for once keep your mouth shut long enough to keep it.
Also, stop turning every positive thing Sarah has to say into something negative. I don't care how you treat ME because I don't care about you.. Sadly, Dad & Sarah for some odd reason still do so stop abusing them.
Lastly, call your daughter and start paying child support.. Oh and her birthday isn't May 25th - that's dad's.. Hers is May 24th. Don't screw that up again next year. Just so you know, she did graduate high school this year, ya you probably forgot that your kid is 18 since you have never had nothing to do with her. And to think that you have the nerve to question Dad's parenting.. Look at you - nothing but a dead beat.

Sorry, the last one was kind of negative.

Today, is the big day - DRESS SHOPPING!

Happy Thursday, ladies! :)

Surprise!

Good Morning, loves! :) Hope you're all having a happy hump day.

Did you know that today is National Coffee Day?! I'll be enjoying my coffee here pretty soon :)

I have a fun little story for y'all.  Every Tuesday night I have a work related meeting. I usually get home around 10:30 and Mr. always waits up on the couch for me! Well last night around 10 he text me and said "On your way home?" which is really out of character for him. He's not the type to check in with me especially since knows that I get home around the same time every week and if I'm running late I'll call so I kind of thought something was up but didn't think too much of it. That was until I turned the corner to our house and saw a brand spanking new truck parked in the Mr.'s parking spot! 

SAY WHAT?!

source

This is our new truck only ours is white and doesn't have the rear handle door. It has the kind you have to open from the inside! It was the closest I could find!

We've been talking about both of us getting new cars for quite a while. We agreed that the new cars thought would have to wait until after the wedding and preferably after we move into a new house.

Well, all plans changed last Thursday when Mr. got home from work and said "My radiator isn't holding fluid and we can't figure out where the issue is.. So we can either spend a couple thousand to find the issue and then possibly fix it or..." My response was "Call Ben. (his brother is a car salesmen) I'd rather have to buy your new truck now than get stuck on the top of the Mt again for xmas and thanksgiving this year." (It snows here - a lot on the pass - and my car doesn't fare well in the snow so we always take his truck)

Wait, you haven't heard that story..?! Oh, that's a whole post in itself. 

So, obviously we'd talked about him getting a new truck. I knew it was coming in fact Ben had even sent us pictures and drawn up all the paper work but we weren't going to be able to drive the 3 hours to go get it for a few more weeks. Little did I know that Ben and Mr. had a few tricks up their sleeves and EVERYONE knew the truck was coming yesterday but me.

So 1045 last night I told the Mr. I was going to take his new truck out for a joy ride.. His response "Wait for me!!" :)

Now, if only I can get him to surprise me w/ a Yukon for a wedding gift...? ;) A girl can dream right?

Help & Top 2 Tuesday.

First of all, thank you to all of you who commented on my post yesterday with your sweet and supportive comments!! I loved reading each and every one of them and want to reply to each of you individually.

This is where the help comes in.. I know that many of you have blogger set up to email you your comments and you can reply to each of them individually through your email.... I don't have it set up that way and I don't know how to set it up that way....... In advance your help is greatly appreciated :)

Now on to the fun stuff I'm so happy it's Tuesday!

Taylor is of course hosting Top 2 Tuesday! 

This week we're talking about our top 2 songs! Link up and join in on the fun!

1) Reba McEntire - Fancy

I saw Reba in concert when I was in the second grade and I still remember it as if I saw her yesterday! She sang Fancy and I had CHILLS. Still every time I hear this song I get chills.

2) George Straight - I saw God Today

This song is just beautiful. You really can't go wrong w/ a good ole George song but this one will always be one of my favorites.

What are your two favorite songs? Go link up with Taylor and play along.

Buyers Remorse - Wedding Gown Edition.

First of all, I'd like to start this post by saying I never thought this would be me. I never thought on the day that I purchased my wedding gown that I would later regret the decision and later come to hate my dress. 

When the mister and I got engaged I was so excited to go dress shopping. I couldn't wait to try on dresses and I started shopping online right away. I thought I knew what style I wanted and went into the bridal store with a list of dresses I wanted to try on. I never went in and had them pull dress that they thought would look best on me. I never had them pull a simple style in each silhouette to figure out what was most flattering. 

I told my mom from day one that I was pretty sure I wanted something with lace. I wanted something timeless.. So when we found my dress and I walked out and everyone in the entire salon stopped and stared I said "This is it!" I didn't need to try on other dresses. Everyone in the building thought the dress was stunning. Everyone except for me.

I bought the dress. My mom loved it, my grandma loved it, my MIL loved it.. The only problem is that I didn't love it. I should have listened to my gut when we picked it up and I said "something isn't right.. I don't like this, that, this here.." but my mom said maybe if we take it home that I'd stop second guessing things.

So, that is what I did. I took the dress that I didn't love home. I have tried it on 4 times in the past 6 months and each time I've liked it LESS.

RED FLAG! Then when my SIL Allison said at her wedding that she was worried she might not like it because she'd purchased it so early but each time she saw it she fell in love with it even more I knew I had to seriously think about what I had.

Friday night I called my mom sobbing. I think she probably thought Mr and I had gotten in a huge fight and split up because I was that upset. So when I told her through broken tears that "I hate my dress" she busted out in laughter. Like hysterical laughter.  She said "Honey, we'll go buy you a new one and put yours on craigslist then! I had a dress that I loved for my wedding and you should have one that you love for yours... But I'm not buying the new one so you'll have to talk to Mr. about that.. By the way, I knew this day was coming. Each time you've tried the dress on since we brought it home you've looked more and more disappointed." Phew, that went better than I'd expected.

Now, on to telling the Mr.... 

Mr. walked in the door from a massage (it was his bday and I'd sent him to our massage therapist for some relaxation - which I was about to ruin) around 5 took one look at me and said "What's wrong..?" to which I replied in tears "I hate my dress..!" again the response - laughter!!!?!?!?! Followed by "you're kidding, right?"

Anyway, here we are back at square one. Mr. and I figured out a new budget and I'll be dress shopping Thursday evening. 

Lesson to all you girls who don't yet have your dresses - if something feels wrong it is! Don't second guess your GUT FEELINGS!! Also, don't buy a dress without trying on several others at OTHER stores.

The things my fiance says...

Last night while laying in bed the Mr. and I had the following conversation:

Me: I called a florist today to schedule a consult. Maybe if she can do what we want for less we won't do our own center pieces.

Mr: Seriously? You've changed your mind again..? Why?

Me: Well, I just think that it would be less stressful if someone else does it all for me. I guess I haven't really made up my mind.

Mr: Gosh you're high maintenance!

Me: This shouldn't be a shock to you. You've known this from the beginning. It's not like I've ever acted like I was easy to please and my dad warned you!

Mr: Well, I didn't really know it from the beginning... I mean you do drive a Carolla.

Me: Ya, but I should be driving a Range Rover.

Mr: Great. 

Later this conversation occurred after I may or may not have panicked over our Christmas budget being a little too high:

Mr: Do you ever think that maybe you overreact a little bit...?

Me: No!

Mr: Are you sure..?

Me: No!!!

Mr: I mean if we had 100 or so people out there watching how you react to things sometimes you don't think the majority of them would think that you sometimes (read always) overreact...

Me:......Not if 98 of the 100 people watching are women.

Mr: Ya, that's what I thought.

I found these conversations funny. Hopefully most of you will too!

And for the record - I.do.not.ever.overreact. ;)

Christmas Cards..

Every year when I was a child my mom would sit down at the island in the kitchen and write something personal on each and every Christmas card.  She would send these personalized cards to everyone we knew. Over the years Merry Christmas evolved to Happy Holidays.  As a nation we're pretty fond of being politically correct.  As a nation we changed our Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays for the sake of being politically correct.  As a family though we did not.  My mom always said that we were Christian there for we believed in Christ and Christmas.  She wouldn't be offended if someone had sent us a card that read "Happy Hanukkah".  

While the world was changing up their holiday greeting so was the card industry.  We no longer send out cards with a cute little picture of Santa on the front and a greeting inside.  Most American's now send out photo cards.  I have to admit that this tradition is one that the Mr. and I have carried over.  Is it pathetic that in September I'm already looking for the perfect xmas card? Is it pathetic that I'm already staging outfits for us to take pictures in for them? Or that I'm riffling through our engagement photo's to find the perfect one for the main photo? Maybe. As I was thinking about how guilty I felt about the fact that we're not taking the time to write out a personal message on each card I also started to think about the time I've been putting into our photo cards.  Can I still take a sharpie to each card and jot down a quick little note? Yes, I absolutely can. Could this be the perfect solution to the best of both worlds? Yes, I think it can. 

Now, the tough question.. Will our cards read Merry Christmas? Season Greetings? Or possibly Happy Holidays?  I think I'll stick to Wish you a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year because while I believe that being politically correct at times is important I also believe that being myself and standing true to my beliefs on my personal greeting card is more important..

Do you send out annual Christmas cards? Do you have any traditions? Do you spend hours picking out the perfect greeting card?

Center Pieces

So I mentioned in my last post I have been working hard on our center pieces.  I finally found something that I liked. Our original plan was to have our florist fill as many vases as we'd like with flowers for a fee.  Well what she failed to mention was that she was only going to use one stem per vase... Bare much? Makes us look like we went way cheap on the floral...? So after seeing an arrangement at one of my BM's house that her mom had picked up at a recent wedding of their friend I decided that was the route I wanted to take.

So over the weekend the Mr. and I went to Michaels and Craft Warehouse to collect flowers, vases, and any other supplies we might need to make a practice center piece.  I finished the first one tonight and I have to say I'm pretty pleased...

Here is the start of the process with all of the supplies.

The vase, the floral forms, the flowers, the rocks, and the lingdon berries (In a juice pitcher because my mom threw out the container they came in)

The Floral Form


The Floral Form in the Vase before adding the rocks and lingdon berries


The final product!


What do you think? We're also going to have eggplant colored satin table runners and candles surrounding this. I'll also probably add a few more flowers to make it a little more full but for the firs round I was pretty pleased! :)
Your thoughts are greatly apprecitaed!

Now, a few pictures from the past few months.

Mr. and I about to go out to dinner.


Mr. and I at his brother's wedding a few weeks ago.


I'm loving the fact that I've figured out how to use picnik.com and am able to
water mark my photo's now! :)

Hope you all have had a happy Monday!

Weekend Wrap Up!

Hello loves! It's Monday and I had a hard time letting go of the weekend this morning! So much so that I've put two patients on hold just because I didn't want to deal with them.. Hope you all had a great weekend.  We sure did.

Friday night we had date night! We decided to go see the movie Town with Ben Affleck!

The movie was AWESOME. I will definitely recommend that you go see this movie with your man ASAP! We both really liked it. Blake Lively does an awesome job playing a role that is so out of the ordinary for her. I am so used to seeing her play the preppy Gosip Girl role and I was really surprised at how well she played the role of a druggie in this movie. It's a must see!

Saturday we got up bright and early to head down to Corvallis for the Beaver game!

We watched our beloved Beavs take on the Louisville Cardinals. The game was a little closer than we would have liked but we did come out on top so it was a good day! 

(I didn't take any pictures because I left my purse at home. My purse contained my camera.. FAIL!)

Sunday we slept in and then got up to watch a little football on TV. The Mr. and I ran to Michael's & Craft Warehouse. We were looking for inspiration for our center pieces for the wedding. I'll post pictures of that when they're done :)

Hope you all had an awesome weekend. 

Confessions Session Friday

It's finally FRIDAY! I seriously felt that this week was never going to end.  PinkLouLou over at Confessions of a 20 Something is hosting a confession session this week and I decided to play a long.  If it looks like fun to you then go over and link up!

1.  For the first time in my entire life I'm thrilled that fall is here. I have always been a summer girl but with football and basketball back I just couldn't wait for fall to arrive. 

2. This wedding planning is seriously kicking my bootay. I'm so ready for the planning to be over with and for us to just be happily married. 

3. I desperately want to start working out again and I've even found a studio that offers Pilates, kickboxing and turbokick for pretty cheap but I'm too scared to go by myself the first time.. Hello, BFF's wanna go?

4. The Mr. has been working a lot and I'm secretly loving it. There is something about having time to myself that is so rewarding.  Also, when he gets home I'm that much more excited to see him! 

5. I really want ya'll to tell me that confession #4 isn't horrible.

6. Our best friends R & D are moving to Palm Springs on Oct 3rd. They're still going to have their condo in our little hometown and will be back for the summers but I'm so so sad. I know they'll be back for holiday's, our wedding, and a few other times in between but I'm so sad that they're leaving us for the winter.

7. I.miss.shopping.a.lot. 

8. The wedding budget has my wardrobe hating me. I cringed as I pulled all of my fall and winter clothes out of storage last week knowing that I wouldn't be adding much to my current collection. 

9. I miss my niece and nephew. I haven't seen them this week and it's killing me. I wanna know all about Hollie's first full week of school and how Sammy is doing with out her at daycare.

10. I am soooo excited for our first weekend of Beaver Believer football & tailgating this weekend. I can not wait to hit up the shotski and promise to come with pictures on Monday.

11. I just discovered picnik.com for photo editing so I plan to post more pictures as I know this is one thing that is definitely lacking on this blog.

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

:)

It's The Little Things in Life... Like Fruit.

First of all I will start off by stating that Mr. does all of our grocery shopping.  I hate the grocery and always end up leaving with either more than we need or not enough of what we need. So therefore I just don't do it. Will I go if we are running low on laundry detergent or milk considering it's on my way home? Yes, but I won't go and do the bi-weekly trips.

I will also state that we grew up very, very differently. I will openly admit that I am a food snob. I am one of two children - he is one of five.  His mom didn't work - my mom did. So his mom did a lot of cooking at home - my mom did not. In fact my dad was the cook around our household. Growing up we had a lot of pasta, burgers, pot roasts.. When we had spaghetti we always had Italian sausage AND meat balls. Our pot roasts were really hearty full of fresh veggies... When we had fettuccine Alfredo w/ lemon chicken my dad bought fresh lemon to squeeze on the chicken and fresh Parmesan cheese for the Alfredo sauce...You get the idea we ate really really well and I thought that was the norm..  

 

Well because of that I will only eat certain brands of certain foods.  For instance I won't eat any kind of spaghetti sauce but Prego w/ Mushrooms and I must have Italian sausage and meat balls with my spaghetti... You get the idea.  Another thing we always had around our house was fresh fruit.  My parents never had fruit snacks, pudding, or chips in the cupboards.. If we wanted a snack we had fruit or veggies to turn to.  Mr. did as well but he had what I call boring fruit - apples, oranges and banana's. We always had those as options but we also had plums, nectarines, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, blackberries.. Whatever was in season.

So anyway, when I first moved in and he told me he would have spaghetti ready for dinner when I got home I was ecstatic - until I walked in the door and saw that his version of spaghetti was noodles and a can of hunts tomato sauce.. I didn't know how to break it to him that I found his spaghetti disgusting! He now knows my high standards and makes it properly ;)
 
That being said yesterday the Mr. text me to let me know he would be going to the grocery store after work and wanted me to send him a list of what I wanted. I responded "If you get burrito's get me the kind that have beans and cheese only.. The other ones you got were nasty!" and that was the extent of my wants..Well to my surprise I came home last night to find NECTARINES in the fruit bowl! :) A year ago when I requested nectarines he said "what is that?... A hairless peach..?"  to which I replied "yes, babe, I guess it could be called a hairless peach.." It's the little things you guys!

Oil Cleansing Method

A few months ago, some of you may, or may not, remember that I blogged about the Oil Cleansing Method .  As you may recall many other bloggers had been trying out the OCM and most had been loving it! I had read though that purging periods may occur so I decided to wait until after the weddings and family functions we had coming up to give to OCM a whirl.  Well, now that all of those functions have come and gone I took the plunge. I will continue to update you on my thoughts and an overall review of the OCM. 

To start I will begin with describing my skin type.  I am one of the lucky ones as my sister would say.. I really don't have horrible skin. Do I occasionally break out? Yes, but my typical breakouts only consist of one to three pimples and they always happen around my time of the month. I do have large pores and many blackheads around my nose and chin.  The blackheads were my main concern along with minimizing the size of my pores. So when I started the OCM last night starting with the basics, castor oil and sunflower seed oil, seemed to make the most sense for me.  Some other bloggers have said that they have also added lavender oil to help with acne.  I chose to stick to the basics to begin with because as previously stated I really don't suffer from bad acne but at a later date I may add lavender oil too.

I started with a 10% castor oil and 90% sunflower seed oil blend. I did this because I typically have dry skin with oily skin late in the day in my t-zone.  Overall though I'm not prone to oily skin. I poured a quarter size drop of the blend into the palm of my hand and slowly started working the oil into my skin. I focused on my trouble zones - my nose and my chin. I continued to rub the oil in for about 5 minutes. I then took a hot washcloth and put it over my face and allowed it to cool. I did not scrub my face at all. Once the cloth was cool I then began massaging the oil back into my pores for another 2 minutes and repeated the cloth move again then repeated these two steps.  The oil was completely absorbed into my skin and the washcloth. I did not feel like my face was still oily. 

Today, I have noticed less blackheads, smaller pores, and my face is not oily at all this afternoon. So far I am VERY pleased with what the OCM has done for me already and I will continue to use it.

At this point and time would I recommend the OCM to others? Absolutely.

Have you tried the OCM? What were your thoughts?

* I have not been paid to advertise or write a review on behalf of the OCM. I tried this method on my own accord and this review is based on my own personal experience.*