This Fabulous Life

Last Post

2010-09-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm getting married today.

Crazy.

As I'd said in an earlier post, with the beginning of a new life ahead of me, I'm beginning a new chapter with a new blog. This one will still be up and running, with links to the new blog and links to previous blogs, and the new blog will have links back here and to the others.

It's very exciting, I know.

Also exciting? I'm marrying my very best friend later today. In about... 16 hours.

This weekend's been fantastic so far. Friday night we met up with Kris Cowen for dinner and general fraternizing until midnight. Saturday I did most of my packing for our trip to Hawaii before heading to my bachelorette party. I wish I had the pictures, but I've left my camera at the other apartment. :( Maybe I'll have time on the plane to go through them.... no, wait, I'll definitely have time on the plane to go through them. Trips to Hawaii ain't quick.

My bachelorette party was great! We had a photo scavenger hunt in Coronado, dinner at Miguel's, then back to the apartment for gifts and talk, and then a sleepover with my very favorite girls. Thank you, Jenna, Sonia, and Mandy for sticking it out slumber party style. Sleeping sucked, Dear John sucked, but the bonding was great.

Dragged my behind off the couch this morning to meet Chris and his family for brunch (see earlier picture (sent from my brand new Samsung Reality (which is awesome))), then it was off to the nail salon. Want to know a secret? I hate getting my nails done. It hurts me. I don't know if my feet are just super sensitive or what, but I swear my toes are bright red when they're done, from all the pain they've caused me. Today, I literally watched the woman tear off a piece of my skin. My skin! And they take that little flat tool and jam it over your nail and straight into your toe. Seriously, I'm all tensed up the entire time. I wouldn't do it at all except that Chris has put in a request for me to girly it up a bit occasionally.

Also, it always takes so long.

And that's why we were late for our rehearsal. We actually had to rehearse on a completely different lawn than our actual ceremony lawn, because there was another wedding going on there. We had to improvise some, since our lawn includes a fountain and a view of downtown San Diego, but I think it's going to work. And I just need to say I LOVE our wedding party. They are so much stinking fun! It was just such a great atmosphere of joking around and watching fish jump out of the water. (I was pretty much mesmerized by this the whole time we ran through the first time, and turns out my bridesmaids were too-- stay tuned for an awesome picture Cody caught of them watching the fish-- anyway, if I spot a fish jumping out of the water tomorrow, I'll completely lose my focus on the wedding-- sorry, babe.) Jenafer was amazing coordinating everyone, and Justin was a great minion. ;) Jessica was the perfect flower girl after take one (where she booked it the first five yards or so), and it's all just going to be so perfect!

Then it was off to the dinner at BJ's. We had the entire outside area closed off just for us, and they've recently updated the outside; it was completely awesome. They have new loungey booths now that really give it a party atmosphere. We had all you can eat pizza and appetizers, and Chris and I table hopped because we weren't sure who we should sit with. So we chose everybody! When we passed out our wedding party gifts, Chris explained the story behind the 365 book (which we'd given to everyone) and how it was by Ryan showing me the book, and me thinking this Chris must just be an awesome guy, that we were all there tonight. I just love our love story!

Then it was back home to finish packing, ogle over the presents already piled in the garage (presents!), and try to analyze why my tooth still hurts (there's no more tooth, for crying out loud!). Then Chris left with Kris and Becky to go stay the night at their time share, where the boys will be getting ready, and I continued prepping for the day and the trip at the condo, where us girls will be primping.

So... I should be going to bed... but I don't know if I'll be able to sleep. ;) See you on the other side!

Remember, the new blog is www.lovelikeapolaroid.blogspot.com. Don't know when the first post will go up, but please keep checking; I promise it will come eventually!

Favorite friends!

2010-09-19T20:31:00.001-07:00

2010-09-19T12:31:00.001-07:00

Brunch before the craziness begins!

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I Heart my Dentist

2010-09-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I posted about the horrible timing of my wisdom tooth suddenly deciding it was time to make itself known.

Short version:

Saturday night my teeth started hurting WAY more than it usually does. My upper right wisdom tooth has bothered me off and on for the past few years; usually I pop an Aleeve, maybe rest for half an hour until it kicked in, and I'm good to go until the next time.

I knew something was wrong this time by how intense the pain was this time and by how the Aleeve was not helping at all. I did finally manage to fall asleep that night, only to wake up the next morning, Sunday, with the exact same predicament. Much more pain + no working medication + continued pain even after a full night's sleep + holiday weekend = me calling up Kaiser for an urgent care appointment to get me some pain killers until I could see my dentist.

Kaiser was very nice to me. They gave me Amoxicillin, in case of infection, and Vicodin, to keep me from wanting to rip my own ear off from the pain.

I learned an important fact through this experience: Vicodin makes me tired. So very tired. I felt like I had not nap all the time. Including at work. It was horrible how out of it I was all week.

Luckily, I got in to see my dentist on Thursday afternoon. I was pretty apprehensive going into the appointment; after all, what possibly good way could all this work out? They were just going to tell me I needed to get my wisdom tooth out, I would tell them I a) don't have the money since insurance won't cover crazy things like that yet, and b) am getting married in a week and can't be miserable from getting my wisdom teeth out.

It pretty much went down like that. Except, after my dentist and her assistant got over the shock that I was getting married next week, my dentist is all "all right, we'll just do it here."

Excuse me?

Which is what I said.

She explained my tooth was neither impacted nor fully underneath the gum, so she could easily take it out. Right then and there, in fact.

There was still the matter of insurance however, and my dentist had the receptionist call Aetna to discuss matters. She came back in to let me know I only had to pay the deductible and $40. What?!

So I got my wisdom tooth out.

It took all of ten minutes to numb me up, a minute to put in a movie (Marley & Me, because my dentist's office rocks), a few minutes to clean my teeth while we waited for the numbness to settle, and about three minutes for that tooth to be gone.

All these years... who knew it was easier than getting a cavity filled?

It's been about five days since, and it still hurts off and on, so I'm still on the painkillers. Had a really great nap on them yesterday. I try not to take them when I'm working, because nodding off in front of students isn't the greatest example, you know. Yesterday I started chewing on the right side of my mouth again; you never realize how much you miss using your whole mouth until you can only use one half.

So hopefully I'm back to 100% and off the Vicodin by this weekend. As you all know, it's going to be quite a busy and eventful few days. :)

Picture recaps

2010-09-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

We tried on our rings the other day. I love that Chris is so excited to finally wear his.

Becky did an AMAZING job crafting our rehearsal dinner invitations!

Chris did a remodel of the bulletin board, this time will all our loose wedding paraphernalia.

Wedding party gifts, wrapped and ready to be given!

Picked up my dress from David's Bridal on Friday night. It's amazing. I forgot how much I was in love with that dress until I tried it on again after alterations. The things so big though, the only place to keep it is hanging all awkwardly in Chris' closet. Don't worry- he's not going to peek. I tempt him on a regular basis and he flat out refused to look at it before the 20th. :)

Working out some kinks for our photobooth. This was taken around 9pm against the garage door. With a gigantic outdoor spot light.

Time for some recaps!

2010-09-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Coming up:

The dreaded CSET.
Trip to the dentist.
Finishing up the wedding planning.
Relaxing?

Thirteen days away and...

2010-09-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

... a bridesmaid dress has gone MIA

... the CSET looms ever closer

... my top right wisdom tooth decided RIGHT NOW is the time to make a fuss about still being up there

Here's hoping to a better 'twelve days away.'

Bachelor(ette) Day

2010-09-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Chris' bachelor party day. Which means I am a bachelorette for the day.

Basically this means I can eat whatever I want, watch whatever I want, and do whatever I want. Sometimes it's so pesky having someone else to plan activities around. Am I right? Married people? ;)

I ate lunch when I felt like it.

I watched NCIS, Season 7, Disc 1 when I felt like it.

I did wedding planning stuff when I felt like it.

My theme for today was "relax, but still accomplish some stuff." I slept in. Lounged for a bit. Got ready. Went to the store to get some snacks (i.e. Pepsi Max and german chocolate cake because I can), hung out with Jenna for a bit, hung out with Aaron for a bit (since he is just two doors down now), ate lunch, read some blogs, worked on our candy buffet decorations, studied some math, watched some NCIS, tried to convince my mom to get her hair done for the wedding, (tried not to argue with my mom about getting her hair done for the wedding), made labels for our candy buffet, took a long hot shower, and began studying transformational geometry. (Somewhere in there I ate the german chocolate cake.) And now I'm taking a blogging break.

Mmmmm. It's nice being a bachelorette for a day.

Maybe I miss him a little.

Moving on!

I'm really excited with how the labels for our candy bar turned out. I was a little over the decorations earlier today when I wrapped the jars in yellow ribbon. (It's really hard to wrap round objects with linear objects.) I almost decided screw this! I don't have to do it if I don't want to. It was my idea anyway! And then I pictured Chris coming home and asking me why the only wedding planning I did all day was wrap ribbons around jars and eat german chocolate cake while watching NCIS. So I got my behind in gear, grabbed my handy dandy crafting supplies and got to work.

They came out waaaaaaaaaay better than I'd expected. I printed out the word labels on white circles surrounded by yellow squares, then cut them out with my 2" round punch, keeping just enough yellow to give the circles a border. Surprisingly, I only had to do two test prints to get the right size. From there I used my Slice (which is working again, thank you very much, Making Memories) to cut out 2.5" flowers from the yellow geometric paper I designed (isn't it cute? Maybe someday I'll be a famous scrapbook designer).

And... now it's back to our regularly scheduled programming of CSET studying.

Week Recap

2010-09-02T23:12:00.001-07:00

What we've been up to:

(Don't worry: he's a lot more chipper about wedding plans than this photo reveals.)

A brief history of blogging

2010-08-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

For people who've been following me FOREVER on this blog (when did I start? 2004? I think that was when this whole internet fad hit the nurse's station at camp.)

Anyway, you've been with me through xanga. (Dang. Remember xanga? Is anyone on xanga anymore?)

Then you followed me to blogger, into The Puzzle Box. We stayed there for a few years, before I dwindled a little bit on the blogging. You know, there was a lot going on then. Graduating college... and... hmmm... the heck did I do after I graduated college?

Not sure. I didn't write it down. But six months later I started another new blog. That blog is this one here, though back then it had a different name...

What's Your Story? was soooo 2008. It was simple. Fun. I really got into my groove that year.

In late 2008 I discovered the amazingness of Spring Awakening. And one of their songs inspired both my 2009 goals and new blog:

Nope. I didn't do sadness that year. Mostly because in January 2009 I re-met the OSF, and you all know the rest of that story.

Halfway through 2009, I realized, hey! My header's kind of dark. I need to change it up a bit:

I guess this would be called 2009 2.0? The name of the blog was still Don't Do Sadness, just with a lighter, friendlier look.

Then this year I switched it up to the blog you all know and love:

So what's in store next for the smallblondeone's blog? Well, it's been awhile since I changed up the URL, and I was thinking since I'm getting married and starting this whole new life anyway, anyway, then maybe I'd just go ahead and start a whole new blog for these crazy new adventures?

Things. They are a changing.

Be prepared.

2010. A new blog.

The adventures of thesmallblondeone... the married years.

25 day countdown

2010-08-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

At 25 days left (25!), here's how our evenings normally look:

He + computer ( + beer) = last minute wedding design.

She + computer ( + extra large coke) = math, math, and more math studying.

25 days!

"Napoleon goes over plans for world domination"

2010-08-24T00:50:00.000-07:00

Alternate title: Chris pours over plans for wedding domination, 2010.

Photo Booth

2010-08-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

Chris and I spent a lot of time in the garage yesterday, going through all our accumulated wedding stuff. The month countdown has come, and we're making our lists and checking them twice. Guess what? We're almost there. Pretty close anyway. And the weekend was very productive getting some forgotten or last minute items. We sorted things into categories (i.e., cake table, guest book table, candy bar, photo booth...), and played with some of the new items...

28 days to go!!!

Bridal Shower Memories

2010-08-23T00:20:00.000-07:00

Things I want to remember from my bridal shower:

The decorations and food: it was exactly how I would have done it for any of my friends. Beautiful cupcakes on the cupcake tier, fresh fruit, a pretty blue cake holder (holding more cupcakes!), Chinese lanterns hung in the tree outside, and tissue paper pom-poms! It was a dream how perfect it was.

My beautiful bridesmaids who put so much time and effort into making the day so special. Here's Jenna with the 'who knows Jordan best?' trivia game.

Being met at the door with a veil that my sister fixed into my hair. I wore it for the entire party and felt like a real bride!

Did I mention the Chinese lanterns?

The fact that the girls planned ahead to have two people assigned to take pictures. This, above all, might have meant the most to me, because you all know I loooooovve pictures, and I take my camera everywhere, and I love documenting life through a Canon lens. Thank you Brittany and Brittany for your beautiful works of art!

The first of many, many yellow things that will go in our house.

Getting to see Sarah and Adam's house for the first time. It's a pretty incredible place out in Jamul. Very country and cute and fanciful. Loved it.

Um, what is it with baby eyelashes these days? All the kids have amazing eyes!

I want to remember cute and innovative packaging, especially ones that were color coordinated. :)

When I put this "Queen of Everything" apron on our registry, I knew someone would get it for my shower. Thanks, Becky! I will wear this often when I cook for my handsome husband.

My very special friend Jenafer, who has been such a blessing to me over the years. She's got mad skillz when it comes to making wrapping paper bouquets to use at the rehearsal.

My three current roommates, beautiful girls who are always around to watch late night Friends episodes, talk about getting married, or be sad with about leaving each other in our last week together.

Don't want to forget Sarah, who gave an amazing little devotional to the girls about being the wife you want to be. Really spoke to my heart about the kind of wife and person I want to be in the years to come.

Did I mention the tissue pom-pons that they stayed up late the night before making?

My baby sister, whose grown up all of the sudden, and attending bridal showers and being in weddings. She did a great job coming out of her shell (I'm sure with a little push from Jenna and a giant push from Sonia) and stepping up to help out the maids of honor.... even to the point of being the underwear model girl!

My new family, and how amazing they've been to me during this time. Chris' parents and Sarah have embraced me into their family in a way that seriously makes me want to cry when I think about it. I always wanted a great big family!

Don't want to forget meeting baby Hannah for the first time. Still can't believe I hadn't seen one of my closest friend's first child until she was able to hold her head up on her own and everything. Another baby with beautiful eyes.

Oh! And gerber daisies in vases and yellow pails!

My two beautiful maids of honor. LOVE these girls. Never want to forget the fun we've had together, the amazing memories over the years, and how great they've been during the whole engagement thing. Thanks, beautiful friends!

It was such a special day. I love all my friends and family who came out to celebrate with me. Thank you for all the wonderful life things you gave to start Chris and me out on our journey together, but mostly the support you've all shown is what really means the world to us. :) Between my bridal shower and later on Chris' man bath (that's a story for a later time), we feel so loved by you all.

Packing it up.

2010-08-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

Due to the late arrival of summer this year, and the atrociously hot temperature in our townhouse these days, the only time I can pack without wanting to to die is times like this. Three a.m. Three a.m. has found me on the last few nights boxing up scrapbooks, clothes, and old memories. Seriously, I have lots of old memories. Like, bins of old memories. They range from photo albums to old camp staff notebooks to boxes of pictures to stuffed happy birthday bears. I am amazed at how much of my "stuff" is in the form of memories.

(I'm also amazed at how much underwear I have- certainly more than one person needs, and this is not helped by last week's bridal shower.)

(Can I talk about underwear on here? Will you guys stop reading if I do?)

(Please don't stop reading. I'll go back to talking about normal things here.)

So I've been sifting through my memories. And boxing up my present. And the future? It's kind of up in the air right now. Besides the obvious changes, that is. I'm marrying an amazing man. I get to spend the rest of my life with him. But where we'll spend our first year? What our house will look like? When we get to settle into our own space? That's all TBD. For now, we just know we'll make do at the condo, most of our things packed away in the garage for the real move. Whenever and wherever that will be.

We are at exactly 30 days now, and it's still so hard to believe that in just 30 days, everything will change. As I sit here on my bed, looking around at my half naked room, it's hard to imagine that in 30 days I won't be roommates with Jenna, Brittany, and Jen. I won't be waiting for Jenna to finish up in the bathroom at night so I can go in and brush my teeth. I won't stay up late watching Friends episodes with Jen. And I've seen so much of Brittany these past few years, what with living and working together, but 30 days from now I'll be gone and she'll have started her new job.

It's all so weird.

Also, weird? I get to live with a boy.... weird.

I now dream in numbers.

2010-08-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

You know how bilingual people are often asked, "What language do you dream in? English or Spanish? French or Italian? Tagalog or ASL?"

Well, I have a new language to dream in: Numbers.

Apparently I have done so much studying for the math CSET recently, that the numbers have seeped into my head and begun setting up camp to come out in my subconscious. While my brain should be resting.

The night before last I had a dream that I was calculating direct and inverse variations. There was nothing else in my dream but me + math. And I was super intent on these problems. It was imperative I finish these problems, fast, or someone was going to die or something. To my surprise, I suddenly found myself awake, sitting up in bed, still fervently trying to divide out 7 for the constant of variation, k. After a couple disorienting moments I realized 1) I was in bed, and 2) I did not have to finish the math problem. Everything would be okay, even if I didn't solve for k at this particular moment.

It was highly amusing.

The moral of the story is this: The CSET is taking over my life.

(In fact, I've got my headphones on right now while Jeeves whispers sweet nothings of matrices in my ear.)

My first ever bridal shower

2010-08-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday was my birthday! And as is tradition at the Woodman classroom, we had a celebration!

But not just any ol' birthday celebration, mind you. I was surprised with a birthday/bridal shower luncheon on Monday!

My co-workers seriously rock. No wonder Woodman is the most coveted classroom.

So I headed into the kitchen around 12:15, prepared for my birthday lunch, as as I rounded the corner I saw... (da, da, da!)... a Victoria's Secret bag. And I was all, "wha?" and Brittany was all, "welcome to your birthday bridal shower!" And I was all, "the guys are leaving, right? Right?"

Nope. The guys stayed.

We had a big ol' potluck with lumpia, fried chicken, couscous, a fruit bowl, and two cakes... one of which was my favorite Hans & Harry cake.

Brittany even facilitated bridal shower games to play! She passed out clothespins to play the "you may not say the words bride, groom, wedding, dress, or Chris" game. I lost real fast on that one, using Chris' name of course. But Dave ended up winning his very first bridal shower game from it.

We also did the "how much do all these things cost?" with a bag of cleaning supplies... I was exactly $1 off that game, P.S., with a guess of $16.76. Darn that Rachel girl for taking that prize from me.

(But it's okay: I got to keep all the stuff in the bag. Chris and I will have a clean house!)

Co-workers Lora Lae and Baby Rachel (Woodman inside joke):

Our resident math wiz, Domingo, hanging loose at the shower, and sporting his clothespin:

Michelle, who is my specific teacher, and who is amazing!

Me opening up various presents and cards. I got a birthday card signed by the students and a special card delivered by two of my favorites, plus the Woodman staff card. I was a little, ahem, wary of opening my Victoria's Secret bag in front of the guys, but Michelle assured me it was fine. In it was a gift card... thank goodness. ;)

I also got something from our registry: our two glass mixing cups. Our kitchen is well on its way. And, my fellow scrapbooking co-worker Lora Lae also gave me an adorable scrapbook for wedding pictures, in our specific wedding colors! Loved it!

But by far, the best picture of the day goes to Baby Rach:

Thank you, Woodman friends! I love working with you all and couldn't ask for a better place to spend the majority of my day!

It's [almost] my birthday!

2010-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Thought you all should know. :)

We are getting quite popular.

2010-08-07T01:16:00.000-07:00

As photographers, that is. Got an impromptu shoot tomorrow with Chris' little cousins from Europe, as well as maternity shots next week for another member of Chris' extended family. Not to mention our pending family picture dates with the Aubreys, Holzes (Melody? Is that the plural of your last name?), and Bests. And then we're going to have to go on hiatus from taking and editing pictures to go take and edit our own on our Hawaii vacation.

Tonight we're working on pictures from Kayla and David's wedding on July 17th. We've been playing around with some softer effects, which is definitely new for me, as I tend to go very sharp and contrasty. But it's also super fun trying out some new stuff, even if trying to maintain the style all the way through is proving quite difficult.

I'm still working on my set (I take a lot of pictures), but Chris has finished his and is now setting up his most recent blog to showcase. His pictures are amazing. I really truly love that we share this passion together- it really makes spending hours and hours going through pictures so much better when there's someone next to you doing the same thing. And it never hurts when you look up to find him looking at your screen in admiration at whatever photo you're on. :)

Anyway, if you want to see some great wedding pictures (especially the first one- I pretty much fell in love with him all over again when I saw that first one), check out my almost-husband's latest blog. (And, yes, that is a new blog site he's using- read his previous post about breaking up with blogger to find out why he switched.)

45

2010-08-06T20:11:00.001-07:00

And that's all I'm telling you.

:)

2010-08-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was an emotional roller coaster.

2010-08-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

It really was. First my car broke down again. Chris had to come rescue me at the school's Old Town office. I started crying when he came to get me. I hate that my car just randomly dies on me. It makes me nervous to drive, and that's a sucky thing to be nervous about. I hate that Chris had to take time out of his work day to come get me, even though I know he didn't mind.

(I also hate the bill for fixing my car, which my wonderful pre-husband took care of without batting an eye. I love my pre-husband.)

Then there was family stuff that Chris and I talked about on the ride over to Goodyear. And I cried again.

Then we got the bill, and I told myself I would not cry.

Then on the way home, Chris said, "This'll cheer you up." And he pulled out our brand new, just printed, beautiful, wonderful guest book from the backseat of his car.

It was really beautiful and wonderful. Chris designed it, and while I at first gave him a hard time for all the extra work he was putting into it, I'm so glad he went with the inspiration. It looks amazing, and I know everyone's going to love answering the prompts we picked for the pages.

Then we got back to Chris' and made dinner together and talked about more family stuff and I was getting all emotional again, until Chris came downstairs and instructed me to close my eyes, that he had a surprise. I did. When I opened them, he was holding his phone in front of my face, with this picture on it.

And seriously, how can you be sad when you see this cutie in her flower girl dress? This is the first time we're even seeing it in real life, and it looks awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

After that was a great chat with Sarah. Let me tell you something: Sarah and Chris video chatting is the best thing ever. I generally try to catch it on my own webcam, sneakily facing my laptop screen toward Chris and his computer because he just gets so darn funny and animated when he's talking with Sarah.

In fact... I just went back through some of my funnier videos of "Chris Chats with Sarah," and I decided maybe I'd whip up this little piece for the general amusement of our viewers at home.

Mmmmm... that makes me feel better.

46

2010-08-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

We are packing up to wazoo over here. And over there. At both of our places. In the hopes we will have a place to move into by the end of this month.

We're still not sure if the whole house is going to work out for us, but we know God's going to work out something for us eventually. And if we have to live at Chris' condo with roommates for awhile, so be it! At least we'll already be packed when it's time to go to our own home!

Mail Call

2010-08-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so now that we're less than 50 days out, this whole wedding thing has started getting pretty exciting. For instance, we now have really fun mail on a regular basis. Yes, they are in the form of RSVPs, but you look at our awesome logo and tell me you wouldn't love seeing five or six of those postcards in your box everyday.

We (read: I) make a game out of it too. Either Chris grabs the mail on his way in or he hands me the key when he gets home and I throw some sandals on to go get it myself. Then we keep them upside down until Chris pulls up our guest ledger, and begin flipping them over one by one to see who's coming. So far, I feel I'm kicking Chris' butt in RSVPs from my side, but he points out that there are still a LOT more blank spaces on his to fill.

We've filled up about half our expected spots- now comes the point where we find out if we sent out way to many invites than we can comfortably seat!

House Update

2010-08-02T21:27:00.000-07:00

You may have remembered this post from a couple months ago... yeah, we didn't get that place.

Here's what's been going on on the house hunting front.

1) We put an offer on a place in Chula Vista (the nice part, thank you). They already had an offer they'd just accepted. Boo.

2) We put an offer on previously mentioned place in El Cajon. We put our offer in the day after it went on the market. We offered $10,000 more than the asking price. We had the place in the bag. In. The. Bag.

Without going into too many details (since we are now so over getting incredibly screwed by Bank of America), the bank who owned the property passed it on to one rep to clear us to make our offer official. One rep. One clearance. Should have taken a day. We heard nothing for two weeks. Finally got a new BofA rep. He got our offer finalized by the next day; bank told us they accepted an offer just the day before. Bank of America's selling agent told us we even had a higher offer, but thank you to Miss Doesn't Do Her Job At all at Bank of America, nobody won.

(The moral of the story is if you try to buy a place through Bank of America, go in and sit in the office of whoever has your offer and stare at them until they do their job. This is my plan for the next time this happens.)

3) We found an A-freaking-mazing place that was CHEAP. Completely remodeled, amazing layout, high vaulted ceilings, everything brand new... we fell in love in one night, sent in our offer the next morning. They already had a cash offer, but the guy wasn't responding to a counter-offer by the seller. We offered $15,000 more. The selling agent made us feel very optimistic. Another one In The Bag. We waited out the weekend to hear the good news that we had the place.

This past Monday: They went with the cash offer.

I prepared myself for Chris and I have to have roommates for our first precious months of marriage.

4) We put another offer in on Tuesday, for a place we'd looked at while we were quite confident we would be getting the remodeled place. It was a great place, but we didn't really bother with it, since we were already pre-decorating our newly remodeled condo that was In The Bag. When we found out we'd lost the other place, Chris put in the offer just because... why not?

On Tuesday afternoon Chris called me: "Um, they sent us a counter offer."

Me: "What does this mean?"
Chris: "Basically if we accept it, we start the process of actually buying and no one else can beat us out."
Me: "Okay, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I've been hurt too many times before." (Dramatic hand raise to the eyes.)

We found out Thursday we got the place. It's a pretty nice 3 bedroom in El Cajon with a brand new huge kitchen.

BUT!!! I won't believe it until we have the keys. I went digging around online and found all kinds of horror stories. Allegedly (Chris' favorite word) we will close at the end of August and the place will be ours. Our main hurdle we foresee is that the place won't appraise for how much the seller is asking for it, in which case the bank won't give us the full loan, and the seller will have to be okay with dropping the price. Hopefully, the seller isn't completely blind and has looked at the comps in the area as well, and isn't really expecting what he's asking... if he is, then hopefully he'll realize that no one else will be able to get the full loan amount either.

In conclusion! We are in escrow. We could move in beginning of September. We could lose the place and have to start the search all over. We are not discussing where the TV will go, what carpet color we want, or the fact that we could have a library in one of our 3 bedrooms.

But crossed fingers and prayers and good thoughts are completely welcome!

Shutterfly

2010-07-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to find the best picture hosting site, and right now I keep coming back to Shutterfly. Still can't link to one picture at a time without having the whole slide show thing come up, but it's useful when you've got 204 pictures!

Justin + Jenafer + Zoey

Click here to view these pictures larger

52

2010-07-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

Spent an evening in the garage together. Chris showed me how he perfectly cuts and mounts pictures onto foam board for the most professional look possible. Our poster board pictures look awesome, stored in the garage with the rest of our yellow and gray stuff.

While Chris went on to another project, I took out all my collected apothecary jars, some old boxes, and tissue wrap from Michaels to structure my beloved candy buffet. Isn't it going to be fabulous? :)

53: No wedding plans, but some kickin' guacomole dip

2010-07-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

During my pre-marriage period, I'm trying to build up a repetoire of go-to dishes I can make for my beloved husband when he comes home from a hard day at work. (Thus far my repertoire is very limited, but I'm trying to kick it up a notch, since I now have two very cute kitchen aprons, as well as a slew of kitchen supplies on their way in the form of wedding presents.)

On Sunday we went grocery shopping for the week, and I had my list of ingredients for four specific meals I wanted to try out. One was a chili recipe that called for a side of guacomole dip, that I planned to make for Thursday's dinner. Well, Thursday came around, and we found ourselves making dinner around 9pm (thank goodness for time stamps on my pictures, or I'd never know when I made dinner!). A little late, obviously. So Chris ended up making the chili himself, while I concentrated on the guacomole dip.

The chili was dubna* (Ryan/Chris slang for 'Decent... but not amazing.' Yes, they know the u and b are backwards.) But the guacomole dip was heaven**.

*Not Chris' fault: the recipe wasn't anything spectacular, and he makes a mean white bean chicken chili to prove his skillz.
** Again, not my fault: I was just following directions, and Chris was the one who instructed me to squeeze the heck out of some limes to throw into it. And to throw in some garlic salt. He knows so much more about cooking than I do!

So much to do...

2010-07-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

I need to study for my math CSET.
I need to edit Kayla's wedding pictures.
I need to go to the post office for international stamps.
I need to re-work my budget with Chris.
I need to think of ways to make geometry fun for my kids.
I need to schedule a photo shoot for the Bests.
I need to pick out wedding day jewelry.
I need to go through all my stuff and prepare to pack.
I need to start my first TPA for the credential program.
I need to update my blog more often.
I need to finish my pictures from San Francisco.
I need to take more pictures of the wedding planning process.
I need to get in shape.
I need to find a father/daughter dance song.
I need to explore Hawaii via Google maps for the optimal vacation experience.

But first I need to make Chris dinner.

Hmmm..

2010-07-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Just when I give up hope that we'll be able to have our own house before the wedding....

... we get counter-offered.

...very interesting

Weekends are not for fun, they are for wedding planning

2010-07-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

As Chris has been saying recently, we've got all the big stuff taken care of. Now it's on to the little stuff that should be super fun. Except we're so burnt out on wedding planning we don't want to do it anymore!

Shopping for candy should be fun.

Picking out jewelry and a veil should be fun.

Pouring through our hard drives for reception music should be fun.

And sometimes it's fun. But most of the time it kind of feels like a chore. Homework, if you will. And nobody likes homework.

We had a good day on Sunday, actually. Did some out of the house planning, which may have been what we needed to end our funk. (And when I say 'our' funk, I usually mean me, and my funk, but since we're about to be married we share everything now. Including funks.) We headed down to the Coronado Community Center with our sketches of where things were going to go the day of, just to make sure we hadn't accidentally decided the cake table would go in front of a door or something. We stood out on the lawn and counted how many seconds it would take our party people to get from Point A (hidden behind a fountain) to Point B (the front). We counted pillars on the patio to determine how many Chinese lanterns we would need. Good times.

After that we stopped at David's Bridal to check for Jessica's flower girl dress. See, I had made a mistake in wedding planning. I had assumed a flower girl dress wouldn't need to be picked out and ordered months before even the wedding dress had been picked out and ordered. But apparently that's how the wedding world works. If I ever write a book about my misadventures in wedding planning, this will be one of the first topics: Find a flower girl dress before you even bother with your own dress.

So we were resorting to hoping the dress we liked, in the color we liked, in the size of our flower girl would magically appear in stock at our David's Bridal, since it was too late to order it with a guarantee of getting it before the wedding. It wasn't there. But a manager was. And she said she'd called the manufacturere "just to see if they happen to have any extra in stock." Guess what? They did! So we paid $15 more and it will be here the end of August, probably before the bridesmaid dresses, ordered months ago, will get here.

After that we went candy shopping for the candy bar. Okay, that was fun.

So we got a lot done this weekend. And it was nice being out and about with Chris, especially when we were able to achieve all three goals we set out for.

But I'm going to be stoked the next time we have a weekend that starts out with, "What do you want to do?" "I don't know. What do you want to do?" "Let's do nothing." "Okay."

It will be a good day. :)

Funny of the day

2010-07-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

While I was flipping through the spiral notebook I use to jot down math notes in my CSET preparation, I came across a quote I had jotted down in the car one day.

Chris Trementozzi on Jordan singing Green Day's American Idiot:

"It just doesn't work! It's like Strawberry Shortcake trying to... to... push a kitten off a cliff!"

Invitation Party! {Updated}

2010-07-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we planned to have a date night-in while we addressed envelopes for our invitations. Here's what was on the schedule:

1) I was going to make dinner out of the random things in Chris' fridge (thrown together meal = beef, tater tots, and steamed edamame, in case you were wondering... actually wasn't bad).

2) We were going to run down the street to Yogurtland and stop at Vons for mixers (only got the hard stuff right now, if you know what I mean, wink, wink)

3) We were going to pop in our latest Netflixed DVD, Duplicity, and park it in front of the TV with yummy mixed drinks, envelopes, and gray Sharpies for the rest of the night.

4) We were going to finish ALL of our envelopes before the night was over, dagnabit!

So what did we actually end up doing? Everything on the list... except of course for the invitations... which were the most important part... and the whole point of our night in...

We didn't even start 'em.

So tonight! We've enlisted the help of Best Man #2 to get 'er done! So it's a different sort of date night- kind of out this time, but really in, since we'll be at Ry's. There's a possibility of mixed drinks (cause it's Ryan house), and maybe dinner. Probably no fro yo this time. Hopefully Ryan can keep us motivated to see this task through!

UPDATE!

The invitation party went splendidly! We're all done, with the exception of just a few addresses we still need. Ryan was a huge help; he stamped every envelope and RSVP and stuffed while Chris and I wrote out addresses. What a best man!!!

Yoink!

2010-07-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

(Don't worry about it, babe. Just remember imitation is the highest form of flattery. I think plagiarism applies too.)

What I love...

2010-07-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

1) So I've been blog lurking on ThePigBear for years now. Erin Cobb's got all kinds of great stuff on there, and she has the cutest freaking kids on the planet. If you are a fan of cute kids + Glee, you need to watch the video on her latest post:

Oh, goodness. This makes me want to have kids as soon as I'm married.

(But don't tell the OSF. He gets scurred about that kind of stuff. ;) Cause we have a plan, and it does not involve getting prego right off the bat.)

2) Speaking of freaking cute kids, I found Chris' yearbooks! And wouldn't you know who's the most adorable pilgrim of 1989?

3) What else do I love? Our invitations! Chris got them from the printer today, and they are amazing! Tonight will be spent addressing, stuffing, and stamping!

4) And here's one that I hate: LOST! I hate that show. Clearly the writers put no thought into any of it. They started off strong, wrote themselves into a corner, and made it all fluffy and "because that's how it is" at the end. It's like book 4 of Twilight all over again!

C + J Wedding Sneak Peak

2010-07-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

With all the inspiration boards I've found online that have helped us plan our wedding, I though I'd make one up especially with things we're actually using for our wedding.

So without further adieu, our wedding sneak peek. It's not much yet, but it's all coming together slowly!

Woo-hoo! I flew!

2010-07-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

Sure did. I kicked that plane in the you know where and showed it who was boss!

Here's just a taste of some of our awesome adventures in San Francisco. More to come when Chris gets done with his edits and gets impatient enough to start in on mine while I'm doing other things.

(You know it'll happen, OSF.)

Confessions: Volume 8

2010-07-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have never been on a plane.

True story.

Another true story: today is my first flight.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is what my subconscious is saying.

Pray for me, people! I'm (in the words of my illustrious TGO) scurred....

76

2010-07-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Ryan's B-Day

2010-07-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Since Ryan's Lost birthday last year was such a hit, Chris and I were hemming and hawing over what to do this year. We discovered that it's not a smart move to pull out all the stops early on, because anything you do henceforth will just be lame.

So Sarah came through with the win this year. She discovered that some singer Ryan loves happened to be playing a small concert at Angel's stadium before a game. And it turns out that, lucky enough for us, Ryan had been having an inkling to go to a baseball game.

Love it when things like that work out.

Our first picture is of our lunch- Sarah convinced us to go vegetarian for the day, and, no, that is not real chicken. But it was good faux chicken. And apparently good for us to boot. The chili however was lacking. No healthy chili for me!

Two TGO's, lunching it veggie style.

And off to Angel's stadium! To pose in front of Mickey!

Pretty quiet game. Nothing happened till around the eighth inning.

We were far more into taking pictures and egging on the beach ball that kept making its way onto the field. Oh! And we cheered so loud when the wave went around the stadium three times!

Happy Fourth! I love America!

2010-07-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

We will spend this year's Fourth of July running errands all over creation, in an attempt to gather all the "little things" we need for the wedding.

And then hopefully we'll find ourselves somewhere with a view of fireworks... not sure how it's all going to work out so far.

Wish us luck! We've got some crazy things to find today!

UPDATE

We ended up just coming back to Chris' condo after our errands (got almost everything on our list!) and hoped to see the fireworks from his balcony. Guess what? We could totally see the bay fireworks from the college area! So even though we weren't there, right underneath them like last year, we still saw them. And then, to celebrate, we tested out the champaign we bought at Trader Joe's today. Peach flavored champagne is yum, fyi. The only champagne I've ever drank and actually been able to down pretty easily. We have a winner for toasts at the wedding!

Engagement Pictures

2010-07-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally, finally, our pictures are back and I've been allowed to show off some of them. Only some, because the really great ones have to be saved for showing off on the wedding day.

Wedding Updates

2010-07-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

With everything gone on (work, school, and wedding planning) it's hard to find time to note all the little things going on right now, which makes me sad, because this time is such a whirlwind, and I want to be able to look back and remember it all. Luckily, even if I'm not writing it all down, I've at least got my camera handy almost all the time. And while Chris generally rolls his eyes any time I dash for the camera when either of us is doing anything wedding related, he'll appreciate it too someday. So here's what's been going on with us the last few weeks.

Chris bought all the fixin's for mixed drinks, in an attempt to find the perfect signature drink for the big day. I won't reveal it here, but it's yummy! We tried four or five different drinks (over different nights, btw) before settling on our signature drink.

We got all snazzy dressed up for our engagement pictures session with Rico and Rachel Castillero. We had a GREAT time with them, at our rustic barn location in Encinitas, but these are pictures we snapped of each other before we headed out.

Chris borrowed some lenses from work for us to use on our Jen/Justin/Zoey photoshoot. This is the first day we had the fish eye lens to pla

More playing with the new lenses: I think this time was with the 24mm, the lens I used for almost all my shots of Jen/Justin/Zoey.

Chris has been spray painting it up lately. His garage looks like a yellow and gray painted wedding shop. This is our pretty bird cage for cards!

We've been househunting too, obviously. On our way out to a place in Dehesa, Chris pulled off the side of the road to check out these for sale signs... for a neighborhood of gigantic houses, no less. (And of course I was ready with my camera!)

This was a good night. For our one year anniversary, we decided to wait until our 100 day countdown to go out and celebrate. We chose to go back to Forever Fondue, where we'd gone for our sixth month anniversary. We really loved it the first time around, that quiet atmosphere, the drawn out dinner, the fun of the whole experience. So we went back again to relax, discuss some more wedding ideas, and celebrate one and one hundred. And drink beer (him) and Tokyo Teas (me).

We've hit up the dollar store a few times for wedding deco: frames, thank you cards, table decorations, and, this time, bubbles. Chris had to make sure the bubbles worked before he was willing to plunk down $20 for them, though.

Disclaimer: This is not our child. (That would sure make for an interesting story though, wouldn't it?) This is me, Chris, and Chris' little cousin Bella at the family reunion. That girl is crazy. She goes around telling people that, I think because she's heard so many people say it about her.

Hot. Not much else to say.

Cute picture of us at the beach, during Jenna's "We're-finally-burning-that-awful-not-a-couch-bonfire." Au revoir, not-a-couch.

Here's a fun story: I went to the post office to get stamps for our Save the Dates (no abbreviations!). The lady asked me if I wanted any special stamps. I said, sure, if you have any cute flowers or something, if it's not too much trouble. Twenty minutes later, after searching through everyone else's work spaces and the back room for the perfect ring stamps, despite my insistence that it really wasn't that big of a deal, and after the manager said, "No trouble! I'll just open the vault for some more rings!" I finally walked away with these.

They are cute.

Sarah's new kitten! We baby-sat Nala for a couple hours while she drove down to pick her up. Just talked to Sarah tonight; apparently they're getting along well, though Sarah fears that Nala's easygoing attitude is keeping Sarah's negative reinforcement (aka a spray bottle squirt in the face for jumping on the table) from taking full effect.

And that's what's up! Hopefully this next week, since I'm off both work and school for a bit, I'll be able to keep up with what's going on around here. :)

Babies love the OSF...

2010-06-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky and here's why:

I've got two and a half willing subjects to photograph every couple of months, when my need to photograph takes over my life and I find myself photographing my own shoes just to get pictures taken.

They are very cute willing subjects.

I'm also lucky because I've got this guy to tag team with now:

(He's so hot with a camera bag strung over his shoulder.)

Unfortunately, not all of my two and a half subjects were so willing on this particular day:

You may have noticed that in almost every picture, Zo is looking slightly off camera.

For instance, here:

And here:

And here's why:

I love that guy.

And Jen, Justin, and Zoey too! (Even if Zo loves Chris more than me!)

See Chris' pictures at his Flickr site. See the rest of mine at Shutterfly.

Waiting...

2010-06-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Chris and I went and looked at a place this evening.

It's awesome. I really like it.

It's even got those really nice, smooth, clean looking maple cabinets in the kitchen and all throughout the house.

I really like those really nice, smooth, clean looking maple cabinets.

I'm smitten.

Afterward, we drove around the neighborhood to see what was nearby. Found a Mexican food place. Figured we should make sure the place has good nearby rolled tacos.

It does.

We're putting in an offer tomorrow... please pray, or cross your fingers, or whatever you need to do for us!

Happy Wednesday!

2010-06-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, blogger people who've managed to find their way back to the ol' blog, despite my serious lack of updating skillz lately! I just had the sudden urge to update. Anything. Just to update this thing. How's everyone doing? I'm feeling fabulous, mostly because I just made a wonderfully warm and cozy dinner of tuna melts and Campbells' Vegetable Beef soup (which really doesn't require making, I suppose, more than just heating), and the OSF has supplied me with a delicious margarita to complement.

Anyway, tonight is a very special night. Tonight... we address our Save the Dates.

(PS: Don't abbreviate Save the Dates. It comes out so wrong. Chris abbreviated it when emailing our wonderful production manager (aka save the date and invitation designer) Cody, and Cody emailed back, "You're giving me what?!?!")

(PPS: Yes, I just used parenthesis inside parenthesis. When you're an English major, you're allowed to manipulate the rules of grammar.)

So we're chilling here, eating dinner, sipping our margaritas (or White Russians, if you're the OSFs, and watching the previews before The Blind Side starts. Which I hear is a fabulous movie. We saw it on a preview for our last week Netflix rental and bumped it to the top of our list immediately. Along with The Time Traveler's Wife and the Book of Eli. Well, I don't care so much about the latter but Chris does, and the preview was there, so I guess that's what we'll be watching next weekend, probably as we go through the mass amounts of wedding stuff we realize we have yet to do.

So that's my quick update for Wednesday. And now I must go, because the bartender bonus effect is setting in, and if you're not Ryan you won't know what that means, but if you are Ryan you'll be sitting at your laptop smirking right about now.

(PPS: Hi, Ryan.)

First Family Reunion

2010-06-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

There is hot weather.

There is lots of food.

There are questions about wedding plans.

There are golf courses and resort rooms.

There are cousins.

There are many sleeping in hours.

There are extremely late nights.

There are alien movies.

There are balloons.

There's marriage advice.

There's secret meetings.

It's glorious.

In honor of tonight's Tony Awards...

2010-06-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

... me with John Gallagher, Jr. I like that guy!

June 10, 2010

2010-06-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

All these years of taking a bazillion pictures have finally paid off. Today, while I was browsing through some old photos, I thought, "Hey. Let's see if I've got a picture from this day from any of the last few years."

And as it turns out, I've got a picture for this day from the last four years.

Let me tell you. It's pretty awesome to look back through some digital files and be able to say, "I knew exactly where I was four years ago."

I seriously need to get back into picture of the day mode.

But. Until then. Memory Lane?

Memory Lane.

On this day, in 2006, I was celebrating Gwen's 7th birthday. (On Monday night, we celebrated her 10th.)

On this day, in 2007, I was getting ready to move out of my fabulous apartment, away from my fabulous roommates (except Jenna, who stuck with me). And Jenna and I stopped to take one last photo shoot in our amazing room, with our amazing three bed set up that we all loved. (Mandy belonged to the other bed, in case anyone's wondering, but you can see here her mattress is already gone. I miss Mandy.)

On this day, in 2008, we were in the middle of the Great Couch War of '08. Where we each brought home a couch that everyone else hated and than had to sell on craigslist. This was Jenna's contribution, what we like to call the Not-a-couch. The Not-a-couch was scheduled to burn on what became known as Not-a-couch-burning-beach-bonfire night. It currently resides on our back porch. Still.

On this day, in 2009, the OSF gave me flowers because I was sick and he was leaving on a family trip and we had just started dating and we were all cute and mushy gushy like that. He happened to pick out a bunch of beautiful Gerber daisies, and I happen to think Gerber daisies are fabulousl, which was a happy coincidence.

And now here we are, today, 2010... and I had no picture. And it's dark, so no good picture was going to be had. So I told the OSF, hey, get over here, we're going to take a picture with my webcam!

And this is what I got***:

Love that guy. He makes me laugh.

Even though he wouldn't take me seriously about my "but I always take a picture on June 10! I just found that out!" argument.

*** Disclaimer: That is NOT a hickey on my neck. It is a bug bite that happens to look redder due to the Cortisone cream I just used.. I have never had, nor do I intend to have a hickey. Even after I'm married. It's just gross.

Just Another Manic Monday

2010-06-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I've used that title before, but it just fits, you know?

How was your Monday? Mine went something like this:

Did not want to wake up (who does on Monday morning?)
Went to work
Began grading Andrew Emmel's Business and Careers homework.
Explained to Andrew why I put Incomplete all over his work when he chooses not to answer #5 (the essay question) on every section.
Said hi to Nephi. Asked if he wanted to do Algebra tutoring, which I had prepared for on Friday.
Set up math tutoring in the back room. Today we did factoring by grouping, and learned the torture of factoring by grouping trinomials.
Welcomed Andrew and Francis to our math tutoring club.
Had fun tutoring math.
Really enjoyed seeing Nephi totally get it.
Felt really glad that I've been keeping up on his work.
Lunch time.
Left work.
Got gas.
Paid rent.
Got to Chris' place and settled in for homework in the air conditioned condo.
Read almost the whole chapter. Even watched the online bonus videos on direct instruction.
Fell asleep.
Woke up.
Went to Gwen's tenth birthday party.
Was really sad that Gwen is ten.
Loved hearing her talk about the zillions of books she's reading.
Saw a lot of myself in her.
Talked with Mike about teaching.
Talked with Jessica about the wedding.
Showed off my ring to Virginia and Genessee.
Tried to teach everyone what my new last name would be.
Hugged everyone good-bye.
Came back to the condo. The Monday night crowd was there for TV and dinner.
Talked with Chris and Cody on the porch while they barbecued chicken.
Learned we couldn't get our first choice videographer.
Learned of a new videographer that Cody knows.
Looked at the first engagement photo that was sent to us by Rico and Rachel.
Watched as Cody worked his magic to spiff it up and drop it into our save the date template.
Got really excited. It's cool.
Set up at the kitchen table for more homework.
Did not get any further in homework and opened up Jen and Justin's photos instead.
Opened my flickr account to upload to.
Became frustrated with flickr.
Made a shutterfly website to upload to.
Loved the shutterfly website.
Opened my book again for homework.
Decided to write a blog instead.

Team Trementozzi

2010-06-05T01:23:00.000-07:00

So after our engagement session last week, Chris and I couldn't wait to get outside with our cameras. Luckily, I had a date coming up with Jen, Justin, and Zoey to do some family pictures. Chris borrowed some lenses from work (Canon, for me, he had to just use his ol' kit lens), and we practiced a bit at our Memorial Day bbq. Chris even went scouting around Mission Trails for a good place to take our pictures. He found an adorable little park in a quiet neighborhood up there, complete (to Jen's delight) with thistles and miscellaneous pretty weeds.

Miss Zo was not a happy camper most of the time, despite our post-nap photo jaunt. We did manage to get some happy baby family pictures, but for the most part we had to keep the trio pictures pretty simple in order to keep her attention. You can't tell it in this picture, but she's actually looking past the camera at Chris- whom she adores. Jen says Zo's in love with all the dark haired guys.

When Zoey wasn't having it anymore, Chris kept an eye on her while we began some more artsy, amidst the thistles pictures. Seriously, these two are just so cute. I'm so happy they were all about sitting in a pile of weeds for the look we were going for. Best guinea pigs ever.

I was using Chris' work's 24 mm lens for these ones... you have to get super close, but you get so much extra width than with my 50 mm. I'm a little bit in love with that lens. And the zoom lens. Zoom lenses are fun.

So this was our first official tag team photo shoot. Yay for Team Trementozzi! Although... that is kind of a mouthful of a name... maybe we'll need to come up with something snazzier. Any suggestions? ;)

Currently I am...

2010-06-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

... eating the beef and broccoli dish I fell in love with last month
... sitting next to the love of my life
... going through the gazillion pictures from our Jen/Justin/Zoey photo shoot today
.... not doing any homework
... not doing any wedding stuff
... really enjoying myself.

c:

Memorial Day

2010-06-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

One of my students asked me at school this week if I would ever marry someone who was in the military, or if it would just be too hard. Sheesh. Where do these kids get these loaded questions from?

I told her a story about my friend Jon from college, who had a girlfriend break up with him when he sat her down one day to make sure she understood what the Air Force meant to him, and that flying for our nation was his place in life. She broke up with him. She couldn't handle it.

Anyway I'll always remember this story he told me as we drove to a $5 country concert in Lakeside years ago. His dedication is remarkable, and I'm so glad he did find the right girl eventually- he asked her to marry him on a trip to Korea earlier this year.

So would I ever marry someone in the military?

I'm just glad I don't have to make that decision.

Along with pondering these kind of thoughts on Memorial Day, I also spent the day with my favorite person in the world, as well as the other Ch(K)ris' and their wives. We barbecued up at Mel's mother's house while Holz and Mel were housesitting.

I watched my babe swim:

Ate some fantastic carne asada and chicken:

And watched this guy eat. everything. all. day. long.

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you for everyone who does what they do to keep us safe. I love you all.

Wait a minute... wasn't she just six years old?

2010-05-26T21:27:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes, she was.

Little Kayla, Jenafer's younger sister, whom I still can't believe isn't six-years-old anymore (granted, I was twelve during her six-year-old-ness), had her bridal shower on Sunday. Holy cow! She's six!

Okay, okay, so now she's 20. But still.

I told her it wasn't fair that she, being a whole five years younger, was getting married before me, and she just hugged me and said, "Think of it as if we're getting married at the same time!"

All right, fine.

So Kayla's shower was adorable. And she was adorable. And Jen was adorable for organizing it.

Also, Jen's amazing at wedding stuff. Like this ribbon bouquet she's already got good to go for the rehearsal. I'm so glad she's on my side in all this wedding business. :)

Kayla was pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen. She was so stinking excited about everything. And just adorable about every single gift. For instance, this picture here:

She pulled her new pan out of the bag and exclaimed, "This is my everyday pan! I will use it everyday!"

And then made that face.

I can't handle the cuteness.

Happy bridal shower, Kayla Deyling!

2010-05-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

I think the worst part so far of being engaged is making my closest friends pony up tons of money for a dress. It's seriously the worst feeling.

Boo.

Sorry, guys.

Disclaimer: This is not the right color.

(Our color is quarry.)

At least Jenna rocks it.

Awful Blogger Alert

2010-05-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

So I am sucking at blogging lately. Believe me, I have millions of things to write about. And I can usually get around to starting an entry. It's finishing it up that is eluding me right now.

So. I'm going to try to release some of these half blogs this weekend. I'll try to spruce them up a bit, but please don't feel sad if the latest entries are not quite up to par.

Well, you can feel a little sad. I'll feel sad.

In the meantime, you should check out the newest blogger to the blogosphere... Melody! She's pretty freaking hilariously fantastic. You'll enjoy her comparisons of cauliflower and broccoli. Enjoy!

The artichoke dip at our wedding will be fabulous.

2010-05-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

If you learn nothing else from this simple blog, remember this at least.

We went today to try out the food that will be served at our wedding. The main chef offered a tasting for us at his condo, and we weren't sure what this meant? Were we getting a meal? Were we getting bite-sized pieces of the main dish? Why were we paying $50 for this?

But holy vegetables-that-I-don't-even-like, Batman; that artichoke dip was worth the $50.

We basically got an awesome sit-down lunch at the guys' place, where he served us all the main foods that would be at the wedding. We started out with a couple of the appetizers, mainly the dip and some sausage he had prepared. Then we tried the two different types of chicken he had, though he promised we would pick the second one (we did) and then we try the pasta too. At one point he asked me why I looked so dazed (this guy kept it real, P.S.), and I told him I was trying to figure out how he made this chicken so perfect.

And he told me his secret. Seriously, he did.

But I can't tell you. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Okay, I'll tell you part of it. The part about where he gets his chicken. (Drum roll, please.) He gets it at Costco. Apparently the stuff they sell us at the stores is the lowest of the low, and all the restaurants buy from specific wholesale places that serve the real, non Food Inc. chickens, so no matter how awesomely you cook, it will never be as good as something you will find at a restaurant. But apparently Costco does a good job of getting some of this good chicken. And also beef and fish.

So here's what we've learned: Costco chicken good. Vons chicken bad. And artichoke dip is in our future.

The Repentance Story of a Future Wife of a Designer

2010-05-08T02:08:00.000-07:00

Get ready, people- this one's gonna be sappy!

In response to my frequent blog rants about the difficulties of being engaged to a designer who likes to design and wishes to design many things and constantly talks about the design of our wedding (and our invitations... and our centerpieces... and our bridesmaid dresses... and my shoes...), my designer fiance has written a rebuttal on his own blog.

If you haven't read it yet, you should. Among other things, he refers to me as a child with ADD. And calls me crazy. And something about the Easter bunny, which is really just ridiculous.

And while, yes, I maintain the fact that it is hard marrying a designer, I have also found the following to be true:

1) I love that Chris is a designer.
2) I love that he is creative and passionate and tries to incorporate both of those traits in everything he does.
3) This includes our wedding.
4) These are traits that I have always admired in him.
5) They are, in fact, the traits that first led me to him.
6) Would I ever want to change that about him?
7) No.

So in these last couple of weeks, as I have lamented the fact that Chris has opinions and wants to make our wedding awesome, I've also realized that I love him so much for it. Even when he's driving me slightly crazy with "the big picture, all the time" and I just want to look at "the little picture, for now, please."

Like he said, love is hard work. Sometimes you have to compromise. Sometimes you have to concede that the bridesmaid dress he picked out is pretty awesome. Sometimes you have to concede that you only bought those yellow shoes to get something accomplished that day. Sometimes you have to take a match and burn that damn Pantone wheel.

Here's the sap part:

I realized all this last Friday, as I was driving home from work. I was on the 125 in rush hour, and I was doing that thinking and praying simultaneously thing that you sometimes do when you're feeling overwhelmed. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Well, I was feeling overwhelmed with schoolwork, with real work, with the wedding... especially with the wedding, and with Chris, for wanting to put so much work into the planning and the details and the research and the... let's just say it was overwhelming.

And then suddenly I wasn't overwhelmed with all that stuff anymore. It was back burner stuff. Instead, I was hit with the overwhelming blessing Chris is in my life. How he makes me smile, and laughs at the same things I laugh at, and is content to sit for hours with me on our laptops, and appreciates beauty, and appreciates me, and works so hard, and feeds me, and takes care of me, and a million other things that just take my breath away when I pause to think about them.

He is amazing.

And to think that God's given him to me, to stand beside me, and love me, and be my family, it's just so incomprehensible that such a blessing as he is could be given to me.

And I'll admit it. I was crying a little as I drove down that 125 in rush hour. And when he called me two seconds later with a wedding question, I blurted out, "I was just thinking about how much I love you!" And then everything was great.

So marrying a designer is hard work. And marrying a non-designer is hard work.

But I think we're going to make it just fine.

While shopping with my roommates at Barnes & Noble

2010-05-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

The following takes place on May 7, between 8:30pm and 8:35pm.

Jordan: That journal cover reminds me of Mandy.

Sonia: Really? I think that one looks more like Jenna.

Jordan: No, when I think of Jenna, I don't think of so many colors. Like maybe three colors. Bright colors. But just three of them.

Jenna: I like that cover. I would get that.

Jordan: No, it looks like Mandy. Look, this is what you look like.

Jordan: Only with pinks.

Jenna: Really? I would think that would look like Mandy.

Sonia: I think that one looks like Jenna, too.

Jenna: Here's mine! (Holds up a journal entitled Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake.)

Jordan: No, here's Jenna for sure.

Jenna and Sonia: Oh, yeah...

Jordan: See? Three colors. Oh, here's another one that's totally Jenna!

Sonia: No, that's Jordan!

Jordan: (Looks at the book.) Oh, yeah, you're right.

Yes. This is a true account of a Friday night spent at the mall. We analyzed each other's personalities using journal covers at the bookstore.

I like those girls.

Telling our peeps

2010-05-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

The invitations have gone out.

The calls have been made.

And ten lucky contestants have been chosen to play Wedding Party Idol.

Just kidding. There's no contest. We want everyone to just be best friends.

(And we'd prefer if most of them didn't sing.)

(If your name is Sarah Trementozzi, you can sing.)

Yes, I sent invitations to my bridesmaids. And, yes, they all knew I'd picked them before they got their invitations. I'm all not-good-at-keeping-secrets awesome that way.

I made the invites with scalloped note cards, envelopes, and ribbon from Joann's Crafts, along with Chris' nifty printer that only ruined three pages by rotating the little card halfway through the printer duct. (Is that the appropriate terminology for the part of the printer where you know something is going terribly wrong and yet your fingers can't reach in to fix it or at least salvage the quickly diminishing numbers of scalloped cards?)

Chris contemplated invitations for his guys, but in the end he settled on the quick and dirty method:

"Hey, Chris*. Want to be in my wedding? Awesome. Hey when do we want to go golfing** next?"

And since I just named off all the guys, here's the list of girls, for those of you who have tiny screens and can't read the girls' names on the picture above (or for those of you who don't know you can click on pictures to enlarge them....): my sister Britt, Chris' sister Sarah, and my amazing roommates Jenna, Sonia, and Mandy.

*Substitute Chris for Kris, Cody, or Ryan.

** Substitute golfing for watching 24 or going to a concert.

Cupcake Tasting

2010-05-03T23:09:00.001-07:00

Chris and I got a bunch of stuff done this weekend. We met with Jarrod, who's going to be DJ'ing for us. We took a trip downtown to check out hotels for... you know. Later. We decided on the bridesmaid's dresses. And we went to our first cake sampling.

(Cup)cake that is. We went thinking we'd just buy some to sample. Which we did. Then when we asked about their wedding deals, they gave us four more to sample.

We are now up to our ears in cupcakes.

But they're really yummy.

Beef with Broccoli = Heaven

2010-05-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Tonight I decided we needed a break from wedding planning and schoolwork.

So for a glorious two hours, I did nothing online. Instead, I went to Vons, got some steak and broccoli, set to making this great recipe, and made Chris turn off his computer for an hour and watch Planet Earth with me while we ate.

It was so nice.

And that beef and broccoli recipe is a-freaking-mazing. Seriously, as soon as I poured the sauce into the pan with the steak it was like heaven broke out in the kitchen. The smell was so intensely mouth-watering, and I basically stood over the pan and picked out pieces while I waited for the rice to hurry up and cook. (Sshhh, don't tell Chris, he thinks we got an equal amount.) And I had the foresight to make more than necessary and we both had a delish lunch to take to work with us today.

Beef and broccoli make Mondays much better, I feel.

We also still had some cupcakes leftover. Sheesh, I thought we'd never finish those things, but here's the last plate full, which we polished off last night for dessert.

And now it's back to school and wedding planning!

Update Blog

2010-04-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've been updating, folks. Adding in blogs with pictures from the last month as I've stumbled across them on my camera.

And I put them in date order. Even though I know some of you (cough, Justin and Jessica, cough!) hate that.

I won't add any that are from before April, so please forgive me and just scroll through, kplzthx?

Inappropriate Shoes

2010-04-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Alternate Title: Why marrying a designer is such hard work: Part two

I'm going to have yellow flats for my wedding shows. Here is my reasoning for this:
1) We're getting married on grass; heels have a propensity to sink in grass
2) I'm not planning on walking around on heels all day anyway... even when we're not standing on grass
3) Why would I spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of white satin strappy sandal things that I'll never wear again?
4) Nobody's going to see my feet anyway.
5) It's way more fun.

Chris agreed on all of the above terms, but mostly I think because on his search for wedding photographers, he's found fun pictures of the bright colored shoes hiding under girls' wedding dresses, and I'm sure he envisions this for our wedding picture portfolio.

So I went looking for yellow shoes at Payless on Saturday.

I found a pair of tiny heels instead. Yellow. Comfortable. Won't sink far into the grass. Twenty bucks. Perfect.

Sent the picture to Chris.

He hated them and proceeded to email me a list of approved yellow shoes. He said tiny heels are for four year olds. (?) His specifications are either real heels or no heel at all.

(This is me rolling my eyes.)

Here's his pre-approved list:

(Um, how are the heels I picked out any smaller than these ones?!)

(Okay, I like these ones.)

(And these ones. I think these might be the winners. Soooo comfy looking.)

(And these ones I found on my own!)

So I've got to make a trip back to Payless to return some four-year-old heels. Sadly, I'll have to pick out another pair of $20 shoes, since I used the heals to buy a BOGO pair of cute brown heels for work.

Sigh. Life is so hard marrying a designer.

But I suppose it's worth it. :)

OSF... revealed

2010-04-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

I never got to the part of our proposal day where Chris threw me a huge surprise engagement party.

Basically, my wonderful, spectacular, challenge-accepting future husband decided that, not only was he going to make the proposal a complete and total surprise, but he was going to tell everyone important in our lives before he even did it, and still keep it a secret from me.

He is amazing. So's everyone else. I can't believe people knew for a month. My family. His family. Our roommates. Our best friends. Even my co-workers, who I am with every day, knew for a whole week before, and never said a word.

Really, it was freaking amazing that I was so completely in the dark.

This right here is a look of total and complete adoration.

I give it to him a lot.

He really, really deserves it.

Us OSF's, with the guy who started it all- Ryan!

Chris and his amazing sister Sarah- who also played a hand in giving us a kick start. (You know what I mean if you saw the slideshow. If not, stay tuned for a link to the PDF of the slide show!)

Chris and his wonderful mother!

Sisters at the engagement party- I know, I know, you're all, "Who is that last person?" That's my older half sister, Jacqui. She's 9.5 years older than me, but we shared a room until I was 8. I always got stuck with the top bunk, which for some reason was in the middle of the room so that I almost got decapitated by the ceiling fan every night. (What were my parents thinking?)

Yeah, that's what comes to mind when I think of my older sister. Good times like the top bunk. :)

And you all know the lil' sis, Britt. She thinks she's all cool right now because she's just discovered that Jonathon Groff's cool. Oh, baby sis. I tried to get you to come to Spring Awakening with us many times last year. I suppose all it takes is one of them to land on Glee for her to get on board with the cool things in life.

That was a big digression. Back to the party.

This, sadly, was probably how I looked all night. Shocked. Flitting from person to person with no real meaningful conversation. Telling the story fifteen times. ("And then Zach Quinto came down the stairs! And then Chris was sitting all weird! And then I had a ring on my hand, and now here I am with you!")

Okay, this is my favorite picture of the night. These five people here have a tradition, you see, we've got a picture from each wedding related event we've gone through. Sarah's. Mandy's. Sonia's. Hey, where's Sonia's? Sonia? I don't remember now.

But here's mine!

AND the best part is that right after I lamented how Mandy wasn't here for my turn at the roommate picture, Sarah whipped out a picture of Mandy (and David, but whatever) for the group pic. Totally thinking ahead that one- and now I have an awesome roommate engagement party picture!

Another favorite, and this one requires back story too.

Once upon a time there were four guys. Three of them were named Chris. And the other one was named Kris. The Chris' and Kris decided to all become best friends in fourth grade.

As the years went by, they decided to start adding wives to their club. But poor Chris T. was stuck out in the cold for the longest time; he always made pictures asymmetrical with his lack of a female counterpart.

Then he met me and all was set right in the world of the Chris' (and Kris).

Isn't that a great story?

Here's one of my best friends, Sonia, of whom I apparently have no roommates-at-a-wedding pictures. Seriously, how did that oversight happen?

Okay, get ready for some cute. This is Jessica, Chris' cousin. You may remember her from Wii Boxing over the summer. She's pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

And she's going to be our most adorable ever flower girl!

Probably there won't be any Wii Boxing demonstrations, but maybe if you ask her nicely she'll show you her famous roundhouse run-in-place-and-punch-the-heck-out-of-the-air.

My Woodman friends made it too! Michelle, Sandee, and Sandee's husband came down to celebrate with us, and even brought us wine and awesome picture frames... because Sandee knows I like me some pictures!

When all the hooplah was over, and our guests had left, we went down to the restaurant area of our party venue and had a late dinner with Chris' family. AND got to open up some neato presents from Chris' mom: our first wedding planner and the Groom Book.

PS: That Groom Book is hilarious.

Oh, yeah! I lured you all in here with a promise to reveal the OSF acronym! It sure would've been mean of me to forget that, for those of you who weren't there for the big reveal at the party....

Yeah. Chris gave up the secret at our party. He had it in the slideshow he'd made for the night (which was AMAZING, but I can't figure out how to link it here!). Imagine my surprise when I'm telling the engagement story for the eleventh time, keeping an eye on the sliding slides that I hadn't seen yet, when he goes and REVEALS THE SECRET I PLANNED TO KEEP TO MY GRAVE. Or at least until our wedding. I was debating revealing it then. But Chris just went right ahead and told everyone.

But I know some of you weren't there. So for the sake of your sanity, I will go ahead and not only tell you what it means, but give you the exact context of its origins... this is a Fabulous Life exclusive, people: the never before read original beginnings of Chris and Jordan's friendship.

It all started on Facebook.

Chris Trementozzi January 16, 2009 at 1:17am

Hello Jordan! Ryan mentioned to me the other night that he showed you my little christmas gift, 365. Glad that you liked it. And no, obviously I haven't met you, but I know OF you. Ry has spoken about you on some of your little outings and what not, and I have seen you in his facebook pictures. We should all hang out sometime! I am always looking for good and awesome new friends! What do you do besides hug exotic animals in the wild?

Jordan Peck January 16, 2009 at 1:06pm

Hey, New Friend!

Awww, that Ryan’s a good guy. He talks about you, too, so I wonder why we haven’t ever all hung out in one big group? We’ll have to change that.

What do I do when I’m not hugging exotic animals?... Well, right now I’m trying to figure out why my work e-mail won’t accept incoming messages and deciding what would be a fun thing to upload to Blurb so I can get a sample of how good their books are. I’m also putting off going to the post office. :) When I’m not at work I’m either doing fun things with friends like Ryan or at home uploading pictures of the fun things we did.

I see you’re a fan of How I Met Your Mother, which means our friendship is officially solidified. :)

Chris Trementozzi January 16, 2009 at 2:17pm

Ryan is a very possessive and evil step-mother...he doesn't let me out of the house much...I usually have to much scrubbing, cleaning and laundry to do...but one day I'll get to go to the ball.

Ok, so I didn't know what Blurb was...it's amazing! At least it's pricing is. Being as I design books and various other things for work and play, I was impressed. I am interested in their quality also, let me know what you get. Maybe you could let me see what you get?

Where do you work?

Your a HIMYM fan too!?!?! Ryan got me hooked a long time ago after like the 3rd episode he watched or something...Idk exactly, my memory is fuzzy. But I LOVE it! Barney cracks me up.

Be in touch.

Offically solidified friend,

Chris

Jordan Peck January 16, 2009 at 4:09pm

OSF (Officially Solidified Friend),

Who doesn't like HIMYM? (Apart from those people who've never seen it and are living in ignorance.) Ryan never told me about HIMYM, but he claims after we all got hooked that he had mentioned it occasionally. My friend Justin kept bugging me to watch it, and then I housesat for him and he had seasons one and two, and I watched them both in one week. Then I stole them and made Brittany and our other roommate, Jenna, watch them, and now we are all obsessed. Marshall is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. :)

Blurb is awesome, right? I've been working on making a blog book, but it's nowhere near done, and I wanted to see a test copy of one of their b&w books since we might be recommending them to a client of ours.

I work for a little consulting company called CTRG, but really I work for the owner, who just happens to be my friend Justin's dad. I've known their family a loooooooong time. Anyway, I do mostly admin work, but we also recently started a small publishing company on the side, because we were getting poor quality from the company who was designing our books. It's been way fun; I do the interior design and editing and Justin does the cover.

Which leads me to my questions about YOU designing books. What kind of books do you do? What kind of design do you do?

And that is my essay for this afternoon. Guess I'm off to the post office now. :)

OSF,

Jordan

And that's the beginning of a beautiful friendship, if I do say so myself.

International Gathering of Bridezillas: San Diego Chapter

2010-04-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

Also known as the Del Mar Bridal Bazaar.

Basically, we ate lots of cake and browsed flower displays while photographers, videographers, dj's, and wedding coordinators threw themselves at us.

(I throw myself at this guy every once in awhile. He likes it. Ssshhh. Don't tell anyone.)

The day was basically an excuse to take pictures of flower arrangements and steal ideas.

By the end of the day, our complimentary Alfred Angelo bag was chalk full of wedding paraphernalia. Catalogs, fliers, photo booth prints...

Say what you will about the simplicity of carnations, I happen to find them marvelous. Especially when they're all bunched together like this. It's the symmetrical part of me feeling giddy.

Okay, I want to find these square, short vases in a pretty gray. It would make my wedding complete. Please tell me if you find them anywhere? Thanks.

It was literally exhausting. And I was hungry afterwards. So hungry, in face, I kind of felt like this guy:

He was hungry enough to eat the menus off the table at Miguel's. (Can you blame him, though, it's not like the waiter kept us supplied with chips or the yummy cheese dip all night?)

And, yes, that's Baby Holz. All grown up and distinguished now, isn't he? He was gracious enough to loan his parents to us to talk their ears off about wedding this and wedding that after the bridal show. Thanks, B.

Mystery Project

2010-04-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

The OSF went out and bought yellow paint. He pulled out a square canvas he's been saving since his college days in the art department.

What is that OSF up to, you ask?

You'll see... on September 20th.

Today I swam in white lace.

2010-04-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

I met my mom and sister at David's Bridal for Round Two of the Search for The Dress (note the capitalized conjunction; we mean business here, people). Round One was a couple weeks ago with Sonia, Jenna, and Brittany. I wasn't allowed to post any pictures since a certain future husband reads the blog faithfully and refuses to see any and all wedding dress paraphernalia... at least the ones that I'm in.

But as I went through the pictures from today's excursion, I found this little gem, taken by my baby sister, that is totally pre-husband approved. This is me in between dresses, which is why I'm merely peeking my head out of the dressing room. I believe this was between dress #5 and going back to dress #2.

Dress #2 seems to be the crowd favorite around here. All the roommates loved it last time, and my mom and sister voted on it hands down today. I'm mostly thrilled that I can wear it in a size four. Let's keep it real, people.

Some happenings

2010-04-14T23:19:00.001-07:00

Friday, April 2: Chris' first day off for Easter break, my fifth. We make a day of going down to Robbin's Brothers, not once, but twice, to deal with the ring fiasco, going to Chris' work, not once, but twice, for Chris to finish up some work from the day before, and for me to use Erin's computer to surf wedding blogs, and finishing off the day going to Coronado for Chris to see firsthand what the community center looks like.

He liked it.

We booked it.

It was beautiful.

But he wouldn't stand still for a picture.

Saturday, April 3. Chris brought home from work the Pantone color swatches.

I hate these things. Really, really hate them.

Chris: Pick colors you like for the wedding!

Jordan: It's hard for me to pick off a piece of paper. I need to see the colors in texture and on fabrics.

Chris: But we need a base color to jump off of.

Jordan: Okay... grumble, grumble... but I'm just picking colors I like... I don't think they go together well for a wedding scenario. I'd still need to see them in real life....

Five minutes later....

Chris: You just picked all the lightest shades of blue! And Easter egg green and yellow!

Jordan: I told you this was a bad idea!

Chris: You are the worst color picker ever!

Jordan: I knew I should have made him sign my previously mentioned disclaimer.

So if you leave knowing nothing else, know that the Pantone color swatches are evil and cause dissension in relationships.

Thursday, April 8. We get the contract for the site in the mail and with it comes... a layout of the room, complete with little punch outs of tables, chairs, and dance floors of all sizes. It was pretty sick, until we realized it all wasn't quite to scale, and neither Chris nor I can handle something like, but we had some fun with it anyway.

This is Chris' favorite layout: dance floors, all night, all over.

So little time...

2010-04-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

... to keep this blog up to date with everything going on. There's wedding plan stories and teaching stories and homework stories and OSF stories...

.... but tonight I'll leave you with just this one story: Picture the OSF, spending hours going through his itunes selection, in search for the perfect first dance song.

He didn't find it. But he had a great time trying to sell me on the pros of dancing to "Sexy Back" and ghetto dancing to some Usher song. Oh, babe. You are too cute sometimes.

Happy 160 days until my wedding!

Things I Currently Love

2010-04-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Williams' photography blog and her yellow and gray photo shoots.

Elise Blaha's blog. Her blog is currently devoted to DIY ideas for her own wedding, coming up at the end of this month.

Our (hopefully!) photographer's blog, Studio Castillero. This guy is a friend of Chris' co-worker Cody's, and just from reading his blog, I love him to death already. And his pictures are fabulous.

This blue bracelet.

I want this blue bracelet.

Who can tell me where this blue bracelet can be found?

There are two Sarah B's in my life...

2010-04-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

... just discovered that today.

Sarah B. #1 is used-to-be-a-roommate-at-the-Rancho-apartment Sarah who can be found here.
Sarah B. #2, who I thought this whole time was Sarah B. #1 (for hopefully obvious reasons), is here.

Sorry, Sarah B. #2 for confusing you with Sarah B. #1!

I finally caught on with Sarah B. #2's comment about red bridesmaid's dresses... because I was thinking, "Wait a minute... Sarah B.'s bridesmaid's dresses were brown...." Then I scooted on over to new Sarah B.'s blog to see what she was all about.

And now I wish I'd put more effort into St. Patrick's Day this year. The girl puts everyone to shame.

(Don't tell anyone, but I wasn't even wearing green... and the hair tie I was trying to pass off as teal was in fact blue. And I knew it.)

Things I look forward to during this engagement thingamajig:

2010-04-11T22:50:00.001-07:00

1) Gift registries: Give me that scanner gun and take me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, please!

2) Decluttering: I intend to bring nothing that is not either useful now or was important then into my new life and home. It'll be a fresh start of organized memories and only the clothes I actually wear, the makeup I actually use, and the high school notebooks with cute covers that were actually used as journals.

3) Learning compromise: I'm an idealist, but even I know that marriage isn't all smooth sailing. And even though Chris and I have never really had a fight before, I know we've got differences. And I know we both like to do things our own way. And I'd rather learn how to deal with that now, and utilize that knowledge later.

2010-04-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Just in case you didn't think my life was fabulous enough, guess what Chris and I found at the dollar bins in Target today? A wedding section. No joke, even though when I stumbled upon it and called for Chris, he too was thinking, "Wow, what a liar. Like there'd by a wedding section in the dollar... hey, look, there's a wedding section in the dollar bins!" The stuff had definitely been picked over, but we found what might be the most awesome thing anyone's ever found in the dollar bins: disposable wedding cameras.

Oh, yeah. We got 20 of them. They only have 12 exposures each, not the standard 24, but they were a dollar. And we were going to have to round some up anyway since our party them is photographs.

Did I mention we've come up with a theme? Yep yep, we have! We decided to go with something that we both enjoy and that people think of when they think of things we like. (That was kind of a tongue twister... I'll wait while you re-read....) And everyone knows we both love photography! We will for sure be incorporating things like photo booths, pictures we've taken, childhood pictures, frames, and hopefully our still-unsure-if-it-works new Polaroid camera.

It's going to be a pretty rocking party.

Today we headed back down to the Coronado Community Center to pay the first half of our rental agreement, only to find out they close at 5pm on Sundays, and we'd gotten there at 5:36. So we walked around to the water side and sat on the little stone wall outside our reception room and looked out at the water while we discussed some wedding ideas. It was super nice. Let's just hope September 20 is as pretty (but hopefully warmer).

Oh, yeah, surprise! We changed our wedding date! What happened was that we had only planned to rent half the room, since we have the whole patio to accommodate guests too... and that would have dropped the price in half. But when we signed up for the Saturday that became available, November 13th, we found out you can only rent the whole room on Saturdays. No bueno for us. We'd rather spend the money on other things. So Chris proposed the idea of a Monday wedding, we considered, drew up a guest list, figured out it if people really loved us they would still come, and changed the date on Thursday.

Funny story. Since I was working at the main office that afternoon, Chris called and spoke to our guy Steve about switching our date. Chris texted me we were good to go. Steve called five minutes later: "So, just wanted you to know I just talked with Chris... he wants to change your date from November 13 to September 20... just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page...." Poor Steve. He must get a lot of grooms calling to to up the date two months! Chris thought it was funny later.

Besides driving to Coronado and accomplishing nothing, we also tried Prevue in Grossmont Center since they are supposedly a carrier of these dresses we really like online. I now remember why I hate Prevue. The store is stuffed full of hot pink dresses and eighteen-year-old sales girls who ignore customers but yell out conversations to each other from behind racks of pink tulle infested hangers. Horrible customer service. And then they couldn't even find the catalog we needed. And then they were closing and we just gave up. I might try them again later in the week, when there should be some adults around.

But all was not lost since we scored those wedding cameras at Target. And that was all due to my beloved roommate Jenna, whose car we happened to park right next to when we arrived at the mall, and who we went looking for in Panera to see if she was studying, and who we found out was actually in the chocolate aisle at Target (for a school presentation of course). So because of Jenna we went to Target, found the cameras, and then walked through the shoe aisle while Chris made me try on all the shoes he liked, until we found a pair I liked and bought them.

Sigh. It's so hard having a fiance who insists I have nice things. (Just kidding, this could get fun.)

And that was our slightly eventful Sunday. I'm a little over the weekend right now. Too much homework and shopping and planning for me. I need my schedule back. (Until Tuesday when I'll be craving the weekend again.)

Happy 162 days until my wedding!

Marrying a designer is hard work.

2010-04-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

No joke.

Chris and I have been coming up with more conflict in the last week than in our entire relationship. Apparently all this time when I thought we had the same ideas about everything, I was a little bit right and a little bit wrong. We do have the same ideas- just with different variations. And neither of us likes to back down, darn it!

But aside from all the "I feel that we need to come up with a rich accent color" and "I feel my blue is prettier than your blue" and "I feel you're color blind!" we don't hate each other (yet). And fortunately Mandy did warn me about all of this. Of course, I didn't really believe her... until now.

But I still love that boy. No question about it. :)

We had an insanely busy Saturday today. Our only real plans were to go to the church rummage sale this morning, to look for fun wedding decor finds, and somehow it escalated into a trip to Michaels, lunch downtown, our reception site to take pictures of the tables, chairs, and corners of the room, down to South Bay to check out Paradise Hills (to see if we'd want to live there), out to Rancho San Diego, and to Friar Tux to check out their suit selection. Because we'd been up late the night before and woken up early for the rummage sale, I pretty much conked out upon our return home and enjoyed an hour long nap while Chris watched Where the Wild Things Are. Then it was back to wedding planning via blogs (we've got a new color scheme to match our new date!) and then a few hours of homework, broken up with watching the last half of an episode of Medium with his roommates when I went downstairs for a coke.

While I've been doing homework, Chris has been spending hours on a blog update. I think it's his version of the proposal, and I'm super excited to read it from his vantage point. It still amazes me how awesome our proposal was, how perfectly surprised I was, and how he was able to keep it a secret from me for two whole months. Especially with me asking about it every other day.

We scored some good finds at the rummage sale- four or five glass apothecary like jars for the candy bar, which is what I'd been hoping to find for cheap (twenty-five cents!) and a Polaroid camera! It's looking like our theme is going to center around photography, and Chris had the idea last week to have a Polaroid camera on hand to take and add pictures to a display we want to set up. We're not entirely sure the camera works, and film for the thing is going to be a nightmare, but still! It was a cool find.

Chris just got done with his blog, so I'm off to go read it now! I'll leave you with my current favorite inspiring picture: the yellow and gray wedding party!

Location, location, location.

2010-04-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a week. I thought with it being spring break and all I'd get so much done. Turns out, not so much.

But.

We did get one thing done. And that thing was find and book a location for our wedding.

Say hello to Glorietta Bay, where if you will be attending our splenderific (splendid + wonderful + terrific) day, you will be staring out at if you look the OSF and I as we vow it up.

Yes, if you're lucky, one of those white wooden chairs will be yours... on November 13th!

I found this place on Tuesday, on a 10 Greatest Places to get Married in San Diego website. I was a bit skeptical at first, as this is a community center reception hall which tend to not be fantastic... and sometimes are painted funny colors and have linoleum floors. But this one is the Coronado Community Center, and since public building niceness is directly related to property taxes extracted from homeowners in the area, let's just say they're not doing so bad at the Coronado Community Center.

Here's what the outside patio looks like at night.

Oh, yeah. Better come prepare to party.

Jenna drove down with me to check the place out on Wednesday, and we both loved it.

Pause: Is my roommate not the cutest thing ever?

The view of the patio from the other side. It's right on the bay. Rad, right?

And here's me, approximately where Chris and I will be standing in 223 days. (That Jenna's adorable, but she can't focus a camera lens to save her life.)

Chris and I are very excited about this. We'd been talking with our guy over there, Steve, who'd let us in on the only available dates from here through November: July 23 (Friday, and really, really soon), October 31 (Sunday... and Halloween), and November 28 (Sunday, and sooooo far away). We were bummed about dates, but we were beginning to come around to Halloween... until the next day (Thursday) we called again and Steve told us November 13, a Saturday, had just become available.

Chris had Friday off (sort of), so we spent the day finishing up some work at his office (while I looked up wedding blogs on his co-worker's computer - sorry, Erin, for signing you out of Facebook!), going to Robbins Brothers twice (see the ring fiasco story coming soon), getting lunch, and finally getting to Coronado at 3:45 where we were supposed to meet Steve at 5:30.

We had some time to kill obviously, so we wandered around checking it all out. Eventually we went to talk to a couple guys manning the main desk, and turns out they could answer most of our questions about the room anyway, and took us on the deluxe tour. Then Steve showed up for his shift, and he turned out to be this guy who's our age, about to get married himself, and goes to Flood. We couldn't have asked for a nicer or more helpful guy.

So... we got our place! A little later in the year than we'd hoped, but at least that part's done. Now the rest of the planning can commence.

Here's Chris in our future wedding spot:

November 13, people!

Worst ever April Fool's

2010-04-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

My laptop caught on fire. For no reason.

It was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened to me.

Thursday morning. Noon. I turned on my computer. I turned away while it began powering up. I noticed that the fans went on immediately, but nothing too uncommon. I came back a minute later to find the login screen. I clicked my name. Then my laptop started pouring out fine smoke from the left corner, just where the screen and base meet. I stared at it for about two seconds while I tried to comprehend what was happening, before I realized THERE WERE FLAMES UNDER THE SMOKE INSIDE MY LAPTOP. Then I started blowing on it as hard as I could, and after about four blows the flames were out and it was just smoke and burnt plastic. I was on the phone with HP within five minutes (and I will credit their fast customer service here), from whom I was told they would send a FedEx box for me to ship my laptop to them to fix. They didn't sound too alarmed THAT MY LAPTOP CAUGHT ON FIRE.

All this took place on Thursday morning. On April Fool's Day. And as much as I wish I could say "April Fool's, suckers!" I can't, because it totally happened. For real.

Absolutely ridiculous.

So... although I have my little netbook that has faithfully waited in my closet for a moment such as this, it's just not the same as my brand new 500 gig hard drive, 4 gigs of RAM, amazing, brand new laptop that caught fire. I don't have Photoshop. I don't have InDesign. I barely even have itunes on this thing, so getting by the next month or so will be somewhat of a pain. And be forewarned, all the pictures I post from here on out will pretty much be edit-less unless I can hijack the OSF's mac.

Please don't judge the pictures too harshly. I depend on Photoshop to make me look cool.

While searching for design-y things...

2010-04-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

I came across this cool website:

http://bighugelabs.com/photobooth.php

Just upload your pictures and they turn them into a photo booth strip for you!

I may need to incorporate this into wedding ideas somehow...

There was this one day I got engaged, Part Five: Faux Zach Quinto takes my engagement pictures

2010-03-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

So Zach Quinto had just come down the stairs into the cave, carrying a hefty camera. Like, this guy knew what he was doing. He began taking pictures of the signatures on the cave walls above my head, occasionally pausing for a close up of something fun on the wall closest to him, occasionally snapping one near the older couple near us. I tried not to make it obvious that I kept glancing at him, because he freaking looked a lot like Zach Quinto. Whom I happen to love, by the way.

While I was sort of stalking faux Zach Quinto with my eyes, Chris had meanwhile knealt down to put the camera away. He rummaged around in the bag, moving lenses around (he had Cody's along with him, too, remember), handing me a lens while he adjusted the camera into the pouch. When he handed me a lens, faux Zach Quinto quick snapped a picture in my direction. And I thought, hmmmmmm... that was kind of weird, but I'm not above taking pictures with random strangers in them either... maybe he really liked the OSF's backside. (And who doesn't, really?) So I didn't think much of it, and besides he had turned to take another picture of the other couple there anyway.

Chris took the lens back from me, and I continued to secretly stare at faux Zach Quinto, who was again busying himself with the names etched into the wall. He really did look just like him. His face was the same, his hair was the same, even the way he carried himself. All he needed was a pair of trendy glasses and-

Then Chris was saying my name, and I looked down, expecting to get another lens to hold. Instead, he had sat back and was holding a box. I didn't recognize the box. It was reddish and square, and I thought maybe he had some new piece of camera equipment that I hadn't seen before.

Then I looked at him and wondered why he was sitting kind of funny. And I noticed Zach Quinto snap another picture in my direction.

Then Chris asked me to marry him... and I stared at him, wondering what in the world was going on.

Then he opened the box. And I did this:

Let's see a close-up of that face, shall we?

Here's what was going on in my head in the ten seconds between "Will you marry me?" and me finally catching on to what was happening:

"Why is he sitting like that... what did he just say... why is Zach Quinto looking at me and smiling... what's in the box... wait, what?! Here?! Now?! This is happening right now?! This is it?!"

That's what was going on while I had my hands over my mouth in shock. Then I spoke and it came out like this:

"What? Here? Now? This is happening right now?! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. Really? Here? Right now?!"

(Which he later told me might have come across sounding a little negative, like, "Really? Here? In this cave?" which is not at all the tone I was going for, mostly because I wasn't trying for a specific tone, my mouth was just saying words that were in my head. And my head's tone was incomprehension, which apparently doesn't translate well.)

I still wasn't quite sure it was all happening. I needed a hug.

Then I started shaking, and possibly crying just a little. Because this was a total and complete shock that my mind was trying to wrap itself around.

Around this picture, I started figuring out what was going on. Chris was proposing. Right at this moment. A week after he'd convinced me it would be months before he'd do it. He was doing it now!

And all I could think was why isn't someone taking pictures of this?!

I know, I know- I'm a real genius. But I was having a moment, people!

Ten seconds after that, I realized duh! Zach Quinto, who I'd completely forgotten about at that point, was taking pictures of us! Chris must have hired this guy, because I'd never seen him in my life...

And then I figured out who Zach Quinto must be: Garrett, the new guy at Chris' work! The only one who hadn't been at the Christmas party! And who Chris had failed to ever mention looked exactly like Zach Quinto!

Good thing, because I'd have recognized him on the spot.

Garrett/Zach Quinto, you crafty guy!

At this point, Chris asked, "So... you want to see the ring?" Because I hadn't actually looked at it yet in my disbelief.

This is me looking at it for the first time:

Guess what? It was the Robbins Brothers' ring I'd loved from the beginning. The OSF had been hiding it in his golf bag for the last month and a half. Even though we'd gone to at least two ring places since then!

He is much sneakier than I gave him credit for.

Our very own Zach Quinto took some more photographs for us while I continued to shake and smile and ask a bazillion questions about how this could possibly be happening at this very moment.

Then we came back out of the cove and admired the beautiful ring in the daylight.

This is the OSF thinking success! I surprised her after all her telling me I couldn't pull it off! I showed her good!

Yes, you did, babe. It was the best I could have ever imagined.

There was this one day I got engaged, Part Four: To the Cave

2010-03-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

As a general rule, I've been very on my toes these past three months. I knew he was thinking of proposing. I told him flat out there was no way he'd be able to surprise me; I am un-surprisable. (With the exception of a graduation dinner party the Aubreys threw me in 2007- but Heather's just really good at that kind of thing.) The problem is that I have an overactive imagination and anything- anything- will set me on the course of wondering if something out of the ordinary is about to happen. Chris could put on a nice shirt, and I'd wonder "Is he dressing nice because this is the day?" He could see if I wanted to go hiking the next day and I'd be sure it was going to happen at the top of Cowles Mountain in less than 24 hours. He could look at his watch and I'd wonder, "Is he worried about the time? Are we behind schedule in his crafty little plan?!"

It is impossible to surprise me.

Even on this beautiful Saturday in March, when we stepped out of the car and headed in the direction of our first geocache, I was thinking today would be a nice day for a proposal. But there was no way it was today. We were supposed to have gone whale watching that morning. And I was still sick. And geocaching was my idea. There was no foreseeable plan whatsoever.

And my Chris? He's a planner. To the extreme.

I also remember thinking, as we started past the Contemporary Museum of Art, and Chris stopped to take some pictures of balloons, how weird it was to not have my camera. Chris had brought his, since he'd already borrowed Cody's long distance lens for our cancelled whale watching trip, and he figured he'd get some use out of the lens. My battery was dying, however, and I felt it wouldn't be worth it to lug around a camera that would only last five minutes.

It felt really weird. I was going to blog about it, actually. Dear blog, I would have said, today was so weird. Chris brought his camera and I didn't, and so Chris spent the whole time taking pictures of me and our surroundings while I was bored and looking for geocaches by myself. Not having a camera is the worst!

That's what my blog would have been about.

So Chris took pictures of me geocaching:

And not finding the geocache.

And random pictures he would later doctor up in photoshop with a cool lighting effect he discovered on a design blog.

Around the first geocache, we were down on the hard sandy cliffs, where we found lots of signatures and smiley faces, and this arrow that presented a fun picture opportunity.

Same arrow. I'm not making a face here, I was just looking right into the sun.

First geocache was left unfound, but we found success with the second one. It was hidden in a knot in the fence overlooking the coves.

Most geocaches have little lists in them for you to date and sign your name when you find it. I always, always forget a pen, so I've never actually gotten to sign one. But the OSF had brought one along!

(Later, when we looked through the day's photos, I realized that I had unknowingly written our names and the date of our engagement day. Chris was thrilled while taking this picture... since he knew, of course.)

Okay, here's where the story starts getting scary. Scary as in I almost ruined it. And if I wasn't such a go-with-the-flow kind of person, I probably would have.

We had just finished searching for the third geocache. Didn't find it. At this point we were just around the corner from the cave store, a place I remember going with Jesse and Justin years ago, and that I'd told Chris about each time we were in La Jolla, but we'd never found the store. Well, coming in to La Jolla, we'd driven right by it and I'd pointed it out. Chris was like, yeah, maybe we can stop there if we have time.

So we're right there. And my food poisoning dilemma was starting to creep up on me again. Boo for food poisoning! So I asked nicely if maybe we could just hit up the cave store while we were already next to it, and then maybe just go home for the day.

Chris seemed bummed in the it's-such-a-beautiful-day-I-really-don't-want-to-leave-yet-especially-since-we-were-supposed-to-go-whale-watching-today sort of way. And I felt bad. But my stomach also felt bad. Chris suggested we go get some lunch up on the main street, and that I'd probably feel better afterward... which really wasn't a good argument for someone who has food poisoning, but I went along with it anyway. So we trudged up the street to the Living Room.

By the time we got there it was super hot. The cafe was crowded and noisy, and I miserably sat at the table we managed to snag while Chris stood in line for us. I told him I just wanted water. But then a girl walked by with an amazing looking turkey sandwich and I called him with my new order. He brought us a sandwich, water, and a bowl of fruit to share. It was a delightful lunch.

And, surprisingly, I felt great by the time we were done. So great, I even agreed to walk all the way back down to the cave store so Chris could see it before we headed home.

So off to the cave we went!

This is how the cave store works: you go into the souvenir shop, pay the guy $4 each, and then you get to walk down the stairs, into the cove, and emerge on a little deck down at water level. You can see in the sign that there's an opening in the cove (yes, shaped like a person's head) where you can see out to the water. Inside the cove are hundred of signatures and I Heart's scrawled all over the rock. It's a great picture place because of all the natural light.

Here's the OSF, in one of our first attempts at a good shot.

And me, in another attempt. We were trying to compensate for the brightness coming through the opening, while still trying not to blow the picture out.

Finally, Chris figured out if we stood in one corner, away from the opening, we could take advantage of all the light without the glare. There was an older couple on the deck with us at the time, and Chris asked them to take our picture... which just so happened to be our last pre-engagement photo ever.

And then Zack Quinto came down the stairs.