Playing Catch-up

This has definitely been the longest I've gone without blogging, but this weekend has been CRAZY!! I was so, so sick on Friday night and not feeling so hot on Saturday, but still had a TON to do. So I sucked it up and did it.

• Rob and I filled out and signed our loan application (our first taste of the closing). I now know what they mean when they say you feel like you're signing your life away. Um... you are. There is so much paperwork! And I feel a little lost in all the technical jargon, but the man taking care of our loan is a good guy and I trust him to take care of us. We've also been discussing homeowner's insurance and shopping around a bit. That's another place I feel slightly overwhelmed.
• The house doesn't look much different, but they have the trim up and we've ordered our custom blinds - woo-hoo! Our first real "decorative" purchase! I'm pretty excited! I'm anxious to go back tomorrow or Thursday and see if they've finished painting and started getting door knobs in. I'm also VERY anxious to meet my new oven/range, microwave and dishwasher... I hope they are satisfactory...
• Major change in the wedding world... I'm not using my mom's veil. We got it back from Bridal Veils, Etc. and she did a wonderful job - exactly what I asked... but I tried it on with my "new" dress and I just wasn't happy.
  

• First, let me veer off onto a little side subject for a moment.... So, my "first" dress came in as lovely as I expected, except for a nice yellow stain on the back. I immediately pointed it out and they immediately made note saying they would get it out. Awesome. Well, I go back and it's still there, not a big deal. I was still six months out with plenty of time. I mentioned it again, they said the note must have gotten lost and they would fix it immediately, calling when it was taken care of. They called, as promised, but couldn't get the stain out of the dress and had to order a new one for me. Thankfully, Maggie Sottero had one already made ready to go out and said they'd send that one so they wouldn't have to wait for it to be made and cut it close to the wedding. So now I have a "new" dress. I must say, I'm really happy with Bridal Connections and the way they handled everything. They have been so awesome throughout the whole process and I've never had a problem! Now on to my other story. So, I brought my veil in to try on with the dress. I just didn't love it. I found a new one. It's very simple and elegant, and looks gorgeous with my dress.
  

• And, ladies and gentlemen, you're in for a treat. I'm going to post pictures of my dress, but only for a LIMITED time. Rob really doesn't read my blog, but, just in case... I know there are a few people who have been asking and this is your chance, don't miss it! Here goes! Aaaahahahahaaha!! Psych! You didn't really think I'd post pictures of my beloved dress in such a vulnerable place? :o) I know, I'm mean.
  

Okay, this is going to be a picture-less post, again. Sorry, I just don't have the energy to look for one and I have to get up way early tomorrow. I'll make up for it soon, I promise...

AHHH!!!

We have cabinets! And countertops! And doors! And trim! Woo!!! It was so awesome to walk into the house today and see that there. I have been patiently waiting to see the countertop color with the cabinet color, and I'm very happy! The trim and doors are in, but not painted, so they still look a little rough. But, like I keep saying, it's so amazing how much the "small" things make a difference.

Once again, on to the pictures!

Our kitchen cabinets! The stove and microwave will go in the empty space.

The other side... looking over the breakfast bar. The hole in the bottom part is where the dishwasher will be and the fridge will go in the big open hole.

Looking into the kitchen over the breakfast bar from the great room

The cabinet and countertop colors working together. I think I like our choices... ;o) Oh, and obviously the kitchen sink

Guest bathroom...

I have to admit, I have a love-hate relationship with my future kitchen. I LOVE the cabinet color and the countertops. I love the way it looks (it'll look better finished, I promise!). But... it's sooo small! I have so little counter space and my beloved breakfast bar ate up quite a bit of cabinet space... but, beggars can't be choosers right? I love my house. I am so blessed just to have a house! I was planning on Lindenwood married housing or a horrible little apartment (no offense to apartment-dwellers... it just wasn't what I dreamed of). But, I was thinking realistically. I mean, I think, the majority of newly-weds either start off in an apartment or purchase a little starter home, but how many build? It is so much fun and I am so blessed to have gotten this experience!

Anywho... I do want a bigger kitchen someday, with all the bells and whistles. But I can't wait until I get to cook Rob a meal in my cute first kitchen. It's such a good feeling!

More Progress

Went out to the house again today... so what else is new, right? :o) But, I love it. It's like Christmas everyday. There's always something new and exciting happening. Today, I pulled up to discover the siding is finished and the linoleum is installed. It looks so good! I couldn't be happier.

On to the pictures!

The front, coming together! They'll be painting the trim soon...

The foyer. Sorry, the cardboard is covering up the linoleum so it doesn't get damaged. This isn't our front door, either, but the broom is!

Looking into the breakfast room from the great room. Again, the cardboard is covering the linoleum, but you can tell it's there! It looks a lot more finished already!

Guest bathroom

The linoleum design. I love it (for linoleum...)! It's in the basement of one of the displays, and every time I walk by it I think it's ceramic. :o)

And, as I end all of these fun posts, more to come soon!

We have siding!

We ran out to the house today and I was so very happy to see that they had started the siding! We didn't have much time since I had to be at a doctor's appointment, but I got a couple of snapshots...

Our New Siding! They've also graded the yard a little, I can't wait until there's grass... ;)

The walls have been primed. You see those rolls on the floor? That's our linoleum going in this week. I would rather not have linoleum, but it's standard and I'm actually pretty happy with the style we picked.

A look into the kitchen/breakfast room. It starts looking more and more like a house every day.

We should be closing on February 27, so we're getting really close! I have to admit, I'm kind of embarrassed that someone will be looking at my financial status... I'm a poor college student who works when I can between everything else going on. Then, Lindenwood takes every penny that I have. Ugh... one more year. But, I'm pretty excited! Everyone say a little prayer that the loan goes through smoothly, and we get a good interest rate. We can use as many blessings as we can get. The next pictures I post should show the floor! Maybe even trim and doors. Then cabinets and countertops. Woo-hoo!

4 Things

I got this in an e-mail, and thought I'd post it here...

1. FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER:
   
1. Rob's
2. Church
3. School
4. My new house
2. FOUR PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME: (Regularly)
1. Mom
2. Blogger
3. Facebook
4. Spam
3. FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Pepsi (is this considered a food?)
   
2. Bread (especially Texas Roadhouse Rolls...)
   
3. Pizza
4. Dark Chocolate
4. FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. My house (completed...)
2. Mom and Dad's house, alone
3. Someplace WARM!!!
4. Someplace quiet
5. FOUR MOVIES I WATCH OVER AND OVER:
1. Pride & Prejudice
2. Cars (with James)
3. Casino Royale
4. Pirates of the Caribbean

Digi-Scrapping

I haven't posted any digi-scrapbook pages lately, so I thought I'd put a few in that I've been working on. I guess I just never feel as if they are totally "done." I have a hard time calling things finished, they can ALWAYS be improved!

And, in case you haven't noticed all of my scrapbooking pages so far are for a Oliver/Dudley scrapbook...

Is this weird...?

Is it strange that every time I see this:
I automatically try and make a word out of it? For example,

The first thing I think when I see this word is, "plug." But then, I know it isn't plug... so I look at it to try and sound it out even though I know it isn't a word. I guess it just proves this,

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Hmm... maybe I'm not so weird?

Beautiful Flower Girls

Mom and I met Sophia and Camille (along with mommies!) at the bridal shop today to order their flower girl dresses. They were so adorable in them! I couldn't have been happier! I think they liked them too

Beautiful Flower Girls

Mom and I met Sophia and Camille (along with mommies!) at the bridal shop today to order their flower girl dresses. They were so adorable in them! I couldn't have been happier! I think they liked them too considering I couldn't get them to stand still for pictures... but I will share what I have!

Camille, ever ready for a picture - and to see it afterward :o)

Sophia, still recovering from the horror of not wearing Camille's dress :o)

A few flowers will take care of any sad face!

Aren't they adorable? The dress they tried on was a bit small on both of them, so they will look even better! I can't wait to see them in the right color, walking down the aisle with James... so adorable!

Books

I LOVE to read. I always have and it's unfortunate that in my busy life, I've lost much of my time for it.

Another one bites the dust...

Month, that is. I've crossed another month off the countdown to the wedding. We are officially 5 months, or 152 days from the wedding. Yay!

A shot of my ticker tracking the progress...


We're almost there!

Atonement

I have a new second favorite movie (to Pride and Prejudice, of course)... Atonement. I had been dying to see this movie since the moment I saw the preview and found out that it was directed by the same director from Pride and Prejudice and starred Keira Knightley - in addition to it being the most "heartachingly romantic movie since Titanic". What can I say, I couldn't resist.


Well, I loved it. Granted, I'd love to see it again with Rob when I don't have to pee through the whole thing (sorry, TMI). Besides, Rob broke his "pinkie-swear promise" to take me and I went with my lovely maid-of-honor, Jocelyn. He owes me big time :o). Anyway, on to my movie review.

I had expected to come out of this movie puffy-eyed and heartbroken (at least that's how everyone made it out to be) but surprisingly, I didn't. The story is a great one - passionate, sad, angry, all at the same time. The acting is superb and Saoirse Ronan was fantastic displaying a child-like innocence mixed with an ignorant selfish side that creates the whole being of Briony Tallis. And, I must add Keira Knightley. I LOVE Keira Knightley. Granted, I do think she's a bit skinny, but I so admire her ability to portray the English language with heart-wrenching emotion and unbelievable eloquence. She has such talent for bringing a difficult script to life. And then there's James McAvoy. I mean, who can resist? Sorry Rob, but we all do it... he's yummy.

Without making this post any more long and drawn out than it needs to be, this movie was awesome. I'll definitely be buying it, and will surely be forcing Rob to watch it with me. Besides, he'll secretly love it... ;o)

Miscellaneous Friday

What an amazing day! I had so much fun and got so much accomplished, whew! It feels good! So I've got a little bit of Miscellaneous Friday for you (I know it's lacking alliteration, but it's a miscellaneous post, so it'll have to do!).

• Baby pictures!!! I realized that I hadn't posted pictures of the babies lately, so I thought I'd give you all a dose of the cute chaos living in our house right now...

This is Oliver's infamous, "I can't believe you're taking my picture. I HATE having my picture taken, and yet you do it over and over again. Are you stupid?"

And my little Dudders, just being cute, as usual. Who can deny that face and that look of utter longing just for a lap to cuddle in? Well, I'm a sucker for it, at least.

And finally, not-so-little Sadie. She is officially bigger than Oliver and well on her way to being a big little Daddy's girl. Isn't she pretty?

• We also went to the dress shop today to get the girls measured for their dresses for the wedding. I'm so happy with how they look in their dresses! It was so good to have Kate and Jessie in town with their mom, Fran (she's so graciously doing our flowers). So Mom, Fran, Kate, Jessie, Valerie (our future neighbor!!!), Ashley, and I all piled into a couple of cars, got some lunch and did fun girlie stuff. It was a blast! Okay, okay, on to the pictures...

Check out Kate modeling the dress. She looks great in it!

Okay, seriously Kate, you have a GREAT smile! And you look fabulous in the dress!

Dearest Valerie showing off her amazing figure and gorgeous hair!! You are so beautiful!

• My second favorite part of the day... check out these adorable flower girl dresses. I was originally going to let them go find one themselves, but when I saw this, I melted. Little Camille and Sophia will look SO cute in it. It's like a little flower! The sash on the dress will be about the same color green as the bridesmaid's dresses and ordered in light ivory to match my diamond white dress, not pink like in the picture... So SWEET!

And the back complete with pearl buttons, bow, and all. I can't wait to see it in the right color!

• Finally, we have a garage door!! We went to the house so Fran, Kate, and Jessie could see it. Not only was it great to see in the daylight (I love the brick), but they have the garage door on! Every day is something new and exciting, and, for the billionth time, I can't wait to see it done! Oh, and another reason God is good.... Rob and I didn't get soffit and fascia for the house because we figured Dad and Andy could do it cheaper after the house was done. Well, they made a mistake when framing and forgot to put the bird blocks in to keep the birds out of the attic. So, instead of doing the extra work to get them up there now, they are doing soffit and fascia for free! Sweet!
  

Our garage door!!! It makes the house look so much more complete! Oh, and check out our AMAZING driveway! It's got an awesome swirl pattern and is framed. I am really happy with it.

The girls modeling at the front door. We couldn't get inside because there was a propane tank for the heater behind it to keep it closed. So, Kate "broke in" by climbing through the window... we're so mischievous :o)

Brick, Concrete, and House numbers. Oh, My!

We went out to the house today to check on things as we do several times a week and were surprised to find our driveway poured, the brick finished, and our house number up! WHOA!! SO EXCITED!!!


Sorry about the dark pictures, but by the time I got out of work and over there, I didn't have much light to work with. The brick looks great! My favorite part, though is the driveway! I wasn't expecting such a nice pattern! It really adds a lot to the house, I think.

The front displaying the new brickwork

Our house number actually incorporated into the brick! It's funny how the little details can add so much! I love this!

Our siding color... Vintage Wicker

Another shot of the brick color. I really want to see it in daylight...

A final shot... I can't wait until I get to go home to it. I'm finding it harder and harder to leave!

I'm so excited to be seeing the finishing touches! The siding up with the brick and the trim painted. Then the flooring coordinating with the cabinets and counter tops.... I'm sooo excited!!!

On a Mission

After working so hard on my DIY wedding projects, one still is not quite complete. I would like to add a little something to my Unity Candle.

I want to put some sort of label or something above the ribbon that has our names or monogram and our wedding date.

Like this:

If anyone knows how I can do this myself, let me know! Thanks!

DIY Wedding Part 2 (aka Part the last)

I finished up my DIY projects (for now at least) tonight. This included my guest book and pen as well as the flower girl baskets. I am SO excited about these last ones! They turned out so good! On with the show!

Project 1: Guest Book Pen Before

And After! Ta-da! Not much, but it adds a lot, I think.

Sorry, no before picture on this one. I forgot. But, you may be able to imagine it... Anyway, we just did the same thing with this as we did with the pen. Nice, eh?

Finally, my pride and joy... the flower girl baskets for sweet little Camille and Sophia (sorry no pics of them either - epic fail, as Rob would so lovingly say).
Before:

AFTER!! I am so happy with how they turned out! Trust me, they look so much better in person! They were a LOT of work, but totally worth it! Not bad for $10 baskets from Michaels...

Okay, I've now drained every ounce of creative juice in my body. I mean really, people have said I'm creative, but I don't consider following explicit directions and copying scrapbook pages creative, that's being intuitive :o)

Now, it's 11:00pm and I have to work tomorrow... so, enjoy a little glimpse of wedding fun and have a good night!

Careers

I've been going through a bit of a rough patch regarding my career choices. I am currently attending Lindenwood University to get my degree in Elementary Education and Middle School Math Education, but now I'm second guessing myself.... I think a lot of it is coming from this horrible feeling of dread I had as far as going back to work is concerned.

I'm not one to sit around the house doing nothing for any length of time. I tend to get bored and am ready to go back to work/school. But, this time around, it was different. I kept dreading the phone calls from Subfinder and thinking, you knew it was coming! I desperately need the money, too. Maybe it's because of my EXTREMELY stressful life right now. I mean, how many people carry an 18 hour school load, plan a wedding (the last six months at that), build a house, take care of a new puppy, and work all at the same time? I really don't think I can stretch myself any thinner and still hold on to my beloved family/fiance/friends time. I am just exhausted! Christmas break has been amazing!!! No school, no work, I could focus on the wedding and actually spend time with my new puppy and family. Oh, and go to the gym!!! Yet, I still felt like I was constantly going, going, going.

And, now I have to add the school/work load back on? Ugh.... I don't want to! And, as much as I enjoy subbing as a job, I'm really starting to hate some aspects of it. I mean, it's flexible - I can make myself unavailable whenever I choose (this can be dangerous) - and the pay is good. I can get experience and its something new and different every day (well, almost everyday). But, it's really starting to annoy me that I constantly feel like the new girl, you know? You start a new job and for the first 6 months you're the new girl. With substitute teaching, I feel like it's my first day on a new job EVERYDAY. I don't know anyone, and as much as I try to, I feel as though I'm not making any progress. Some schools are worse than others, where I go to the work room for lunch and nobody acknowledges my presence and as much as I try to insert myself into a conversation, they don't want anything to do with me. Others are better and will at least talk to me and ask me my name. Ugh... I'm just confused right now.

And then, those thoughts are constantly creeping into my head, "What if I'm a horrible teacher?" "What if I can't find a job?" I am so afraid of teaching. It's not like it's a job where if I'm bad at it I hurt myself or get fired from a huge corporation. When you're a teacher, the future lives of the children in your class are at stake. That's a really big burden to bear. What if I, as a teacher, ruin a little kid's life? Obviously, I want to make a difference and be that "favorite teacher" that gets invited to the kid's wedding when he grows up, but what if I fail? I'm so scared. I'm more scared of this than getting married and buying a house. Becoming a teacher is a daunting task. If there's any teachers out there reading this, please give me some encouragement. Tell me I'm not alone in my little world of confusion.

Sorry, everyone, no pictures for this one.

DIY Wedding Part 1

I spent a lot of the afternoon today working on some DIY projects for the wedding. And, as promised earlier, here is part one of my big before and after post.

First, my serving set. I may try and take it to get it engraved, but we'll see. I'm not too concerned. This was my simplest project, but I still love it.

Before:

After!

Next, is my unity candle set. I just bought a set of plain pearlized white unity candles from Hobby Lobby and dressed them up with ribbon using straight pins. The little pearl in the middle of the big candle is actually a hat pin!

Before:

After! You'll have to excuse the lopsided candle, I have some adjusting to do with the stand - as well as some decorating

My last project of the day, was James' ring bearer pillow.

Before:

After! I got this from Michael's, cut the rings off of it and wrapped it in ribbon, then put the rings back on using a small purple ribbon. I love it!

More to come in the near future! I'll be doing the flower girl baskets, guest book, and guest book pen!