I have another shower this weekend! I'm super excited! The lovely ladies at my church are hosting this one and I'm excited to get together for some fun as well as seeing my mom's cousin, Norma, and my bridesmaid Kate. Kate hasn't been able to make it to one yet, since she lives in Springfield, but I know she's excited to come and I can't wait to see her! I'll be sure to post pictures of it later.
Other exciting news... I got my bridesmaids their gifts this week! I wracked my brain for a while trying to come up with something that all of them would like and couldn't think of anything! Then, one day in the shower (this is where I have my best ideas...) I had a stroke of genius. So, we're all going to see Mamma Mia at the Fox on June 8!
I had great plans of doing a nice little get-together with them and giving them all their tickets that way, but I didn't want them to make any plans on the night, so I called all of them. I ::think:: they're excited! I know I am. How perfect that the Fox was playing a show about a wedding?
So the government decided to intervene and boost the economy with some fabulous stimulus checks. When I heard this news, I was ecstatic! I thought, heck yeah! I could use an extra $600 bucks! Too good to be true? It is for me! Me and probably millions of college students out there who are currently ticked at the IRS.
Apparently, I won't be getting a dime and neither will my parents. You see, they claimed me as a dependent, as they should since I still live at home and she still plays a big part in supporting me. So, since they claimed me as a dependent, I don't get anything. That's okay, they can have the $300 bucks for me being their child. Um... NO! I'm over 17, so tjeu doesn't get anything either! So basically, we're getting screwed out of the government's genius plan to boost the economy.
I thought it would be kind of me to let Oliver speak his mind. My poor babies have been extremely patient with my house obsession and how much I neglect them with my busy schedule. I'll make it up to them, I promise.
I really hope no one is disappointed by this post. Looking at the pictures, I feel like I have put so much time and effort into the house and don't really have much to show for it. Then, I've gone and made such a big deal out of it that I've gotten everyone's hopes up. So, now I'm warning you, the house doesn't look like a page out of an interior design magazine, but let me tell you, it's much improved!
Let the fun begin! We did SO much (Mom and I for the most part...) and I'm gonna kind of take it step by step. I have to apologize though, because I don't really have pictures of the house "finished" before we fixed it up.
The Front Entrance:
Before (During Construction)
After with a little paint, some curtains, and a rug
The Kitchen:
Before (At the end of construction)
After! We painted (it's green...), added a couple of house plants, and some furniture. This is one of my favorite rooms in the house!
The breakfast room, also painted and our awesome counter-height kitchen table which I love (with Dudley looking out the back door)
The kitchen again (can you tell I like this room?) With our new fridge, some paint, a couple of rugs, and some paint!
Rob's Office:
Sorry, no before picture, but we just painted it an awesome shade of blue. It has some furniture in it now too!
Master Bathroom:
Before (During construction)
After, we painted it the same color as the kitchen, just because it so happened to be the perfect color and added some decorations. Now we just need a shower curtain rod!
Guest Bathroom:
After, paint, and various awesome decorations from Sears
The Great Room:
Before (Right at the end of construction)
After, paint, furniture and a few electronics... :o) Rob refuses to watch the "little" TV.
Another shot of the great room from the kitchen.
The Master Bedroom:
After some paint, furniture, and a lovely bedroom set from Linens N Things!
One of the dressers
I'm so in love with my house right now! It feels good to work on it and watch things take shape. There will definitely be more in the future! Next on the list is getting some pictures on the walls. But, we'll be doing a lot of that after the wedding. I hope it was at least worth the wait! I can't wait to move in!
Also, any suggestions are welcome as to how to make it better! I hope to be doing a lot of yard work in the future as well. Maybe we'll get grass soon?
Oh, and we got a TON of free carpet from our neighbors house and laid it all over the basement floor. I didn't get pictures of it yet, but it definitely helps warm it up a little bit, literally!
Yes, I know, I'm supposed to do my big post. But, I'm currently stuck at Rob's house, away from MY computer, with MY pictures on it to make the big post. So, you're just going to have to wait. Sorry.
In the mean time, Oliver has something to say...
Hi everyone, this is Oliver. I've had a little something on my mind for a while. You know, this year's been pretty rough for me. I mean, my Mom is getting married, which is cool because I love Dad, but then they decided to build this house. Now they never spend any time with me! They are trying to get this house ready for after the wedding. You mean them getting married means I have to MOVE? What? I never agreed to this! Then, they pushed it too far... they thought I'd like a companion. Someone to play with. Now I have this annoying little thing called Dudley sleeping in bed with Mom and me, where I used to sleep. I don't like it one bit! Mom swears it'll be fun! Um, guess what mom, there's no grass in the backyard! I'm not peeing or pooping on mud! And, there's no fence which means every time she tries to take me out to go pee in the mud, I have to be on that stupid leash. I've made it my goal for now to show my disgust for this whole situation by refusing to show any positive emotion whatsoever. I think she finally gave up trying to get me to look happy in a picture. But, maybe this whole thing won't be so bad after all? Mom says it'll all be okay after the wedding. She says we'll all move out to the new house (including Dudley) and they'll put up a fence, and get some sod and I'll have the backyard to play in. I'm still skeptical. Maybe I'll just go poop behind the chair and blame it on Dudley... yup, sounds like a plan. Peace out.
Don't believe a word he says people! He's just too stubborn to admit he's excited.
And, I promise, as soon as I can I'll get that post going.... I took the pictures today. Don't get your hopes too high though for an amazing transformation because it's really not THAT great.
I wanted to make a post about my shower a couple of weeks ago so, even though it's a little late, here you go!
This was thrown by my awesome future mother-in-law, Ginger, Rob's Aunt Nina, and his Aunt Mari. They did such a great job, I was just so overwhelmed! I really wish I wasn't so sick! Hopefully I covered it up well...
Me and the girls, from left to right: Me, Valerie, Katie (and baby!), Sam, and Ashley
My beautiful cake, courtesy of Aunt Mari
The Loot... ;o)
Our new rug!
Dishes! Woo-hoo! No more styrofoam!
One beloved pot. I also got a skillet. I'm currently coveting the set on our registry...
An afghan lovingly made my mom. :o)
Me and the moms!
And of course, the real star of the show... Isabella! She is being held by aunt Deanna here...
And, since this post is somewhat wedding related... mom and I exposed our green thumbs today and made the flower pots to decorate the front entrance of the church today. I think they turned out gorgeous!
I haven't been active on Stlwed in a LONG time, mainly because I didn't really have time to be active and then I felt so out of the loop with all the newbies that I never got back into it. I still lurk quite often reading about wedding stuff and checking out the other boards and apparently there's been a bit of drama over there the past week. I, as do quite a few others out there, am attributing this to the record 30 hits I had on my blog yesterday! Woo-hoo! I love the feeling that people actually read. Sometimes I feel like I just do this for myself, which I guess isn't such a bad thing either....
I don't really know what this means, but it applied to the topic and I thought I'd include it... ;o)
Isn't there supposed to be a season between summer and winter called SPRING? Yeah. We went from a cool 50-60 degrees to 80+ this week. Bring. It. On. I LOVE summer! I've started concentrating on my tan for the wedding. I purposely bought a few tube tops (which with my figure, I shouldn't really wear) so that I could avoid those dreaded tan lines with my strapless dress.... Well, so far it hasn't worked out that well. Today I spent a LOT of time outside to get a head start on this tan and somehow have some light tan lines where my bra strap should be. Hmmm... interesting. I may have to break down and go to a tanning salon to make sure it's even. Any suggestions? I tried to get a couple of pics, but the didn't turn out that good. If anything you can see my lovely sunburn. No pain, no gain. I can't help it that God gave me some pasty white skin.
My comforter is set to arrive on Thursday! Be prepared for THE POST! I'm excited to finally share the progress with everyone!
We have our first marriage prep meeting with my pastor on Thursday. It was supposed to be today, but it was postponed. I'm not sure why, but I'm nervous!
Rob asked me what I was doing today after school. I told him I was going to stop by the house and grab the mail and make sure everything was okay. He actually asked me to wait for him so he could go too! He NEVER wants to go! I wonder what got into him?
I'm also hoping (probably in vain) that my new comforter set has arrived. I ordered it three days ago....
And... after we finally get SOMETHING on our bed so it looks nice, I'm finally going to take some pictures of the house and make my gigantic before and after post! Please, people, don't get so excited, I know this will be the highlight of your day. :o)
What a great weekend! Aside from my incessant coughing, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Saturday, I got up and forced Rob to go out to the house with me and do some work while the weather was nice. I say force because Rob rarely voluntarily goes out to our house to do anything. Maybe its a male/female thing. I can almost always think of something to do out there, whether it be cleaning or organizing or just sitting and enjoying MY house. It's quiet out there. I don't get quiet time very often. About 20 minutes after we got there and watched the informational video on our new security system, Rob sits on the couch and, as I'm putting away all of HIS winter clothes that HE wanted to bring out, says, "Are you ready to go yet? I'm bored." Cue "the staredown." I'm not done yet, therefore you must suffer. Now I'm on a mission to find more to do. Tee hee.
Saturday night we enjoyed dinner at Roadhouse with my brother and sister-in-law, then came back to the house and relaxed. It was great.
Today, I got up and went to Sunday School at church, since I was going to miss the service and headed out to the Square One Brewery to meet some fellow Blogging (and non-blogging) friends. This was my first get together and, in addition to being extremely nervous about driving in St. Louis with a fear of having a coughing spell, I was very nervous about meeting all of these women who I've become such good friends with online. You may remember, I'm really shy. I refused to be shy today and tried my best to be a little outgoing. I'd say I was somewhat successful. Anywho, check us out after a DELICIOUS breakfast and quite a few funny stories.
I definitely plan on going back to the restaurant, and I hope to eventually make it to another G2G.
This afternoon, however, was a different story. Rob and I decided we'd brave the crowds and head to the Zoo with Ryan and Stephanie. Big mistake. I was warned at the G2G that it was Earth Day. I did not know, however, that they were having a festival for it at Forest Park. So, after sitting on Hampton for and hour and a half just going the mile and a half from I-44 to Forest Park, we decided it wasn't worth it and headed home.
But the evening perked up when we found out that Jeff and Casey (Rob's brother and sister-in-law) are going to buy us a grill for our wedding gift! We are SUPER excited! Also, we headed to Linens-n-Things and ordered a bedroom set. We found it on sale in the ad this week and couldn't pass up the deal. It is VERY similar to the one we registered for except WAY cheaper. We got the comforter, two regular shams, two euro shams, a bed skirt, and two accent pillows for $65! I love it!
Now we start the week over again... but, that just means we are one more week closer to the wedding! 8 weeks and counting!
Yes, as many of you know, we experienced an earthquake this morning. I awoke to the shaking this morning at about 4:30 when a stuffed animal on a shelf above my bed fell on my head. Let me tell you it was a very strange sensation. The house was literally shaking back and forth as if someone put it on rollers and was jostling it. It wasn't very strong, but it made some things in my room rattle and woke most of the family from a dead sleep.
Let me tell you, though this was a scary thing. The first thing that popped into my head, after the initial "Is this an earthquake?" reaction was my beloved new house. I was thinking, "This is it. This is the beginning of the big earthquake on the New Madrid they've been talking about for 50 years. Oh goodness, if something happens to my house I have to fork out 15% of what it's insured for as a deductible. We can't afford that! Where are we going to live? Okay, Stephanie, just calm down. Pray." 45 minutes later I made it back to sleep and was relieved this morning when I found out the epicenter was in Illinois and it wasn't the "Big One" scientists have been predicting for ages now. Phew!
Now I can officially say I know what an earthquake feels like. Strange, very strange indeed.
Oh, and the etc. part of the title of this post is just that I FINALLY ordered my garter from The Gartermaker. It will be mint green with a lavender bow. I'm very excited to see it!
I'm sick. I've been sick since Saturday night as I mentioned before. I successfully overcame the stomach flu and was making my way back to eating normal meals when the congestion started. Now instead of barfing, I feel like I have a ton of bricks sitting on my chest and I sound like a boy going through a voice change when I talk. Yeah, the kids in the math class I was teaching yesterday thought it was quite funny. Not really.
Ahh... yesterday. Yesterday, I woke up sounding like an emphyzemic man and was tired and groggy. I blame this for backing into a trailer when leaving for work. Perfect. Not only was I sick, hungry, and running late for a fun filled day with 14 year olds, but I back into a trailer. Cue Dad. Dad brings good news... we should be able to buff the damage out. No dents or anything, and wouldn't you know it? The trailer is fine. Good, I've avoided a $500 deductible to fix my car.
Now I'm sitting in class blogging just to hang on to consciousness and praying for health again.
Look on the bright side, it's a beautiful day, tomorrow is Friday, and this weekend we're hoping to hit the zoo and I finally get to meet all of my "cyber friends." Let's hope this illness doesn't progress to Whooping Cough or something. At the rate I'm going, it wouldn't surprise me.
In the mean time I'm basking in the coming summer weather. Check out the next 5 days! We're almost hitting 80 next week! That's my kind of weather.
This past week has been crazy! I'm going to go through it step by step, so prepare yourself for a gigantic post!
Going back to last Saturday... Rob and I's wonderful friends Chris and Samantha got married! It was beautiful! The wedding was at St. Peter Church in St. Charles and the reception was at the Foundry Art Center, definitely a cool place. I'll let the pictures do the talking, though...
Sam's SIX flowergirls and FOUR ringbearers! There was a lot of cuteness walking down that aisle!
Sam with Jenn (left) and Lisa (right) her bridesmaids
Cutting the cake!
Beautiful bouquets! There was a red rose in each of their bouquets in memory of our dear friend Meghan who died in a car accident last year.
Rob and I with Chris and Sam
Sunday I got to see another good friend again. I hadn't seen her in almost a year and she's pregnant! Well, she must be, considering it was her baby shower. It was adorable. She's a bit of a country girl and it was a camping theme with camouflage and even a fake campfire. It was so much fun! She is adorable too. Just makes me all the more jealous of pregnant ladies! I'm definitely not having kids for a long time though, so don't get any ideas!
Last week started the race to get my homework done. I'm wanting to finish all of my "pre-assigned" stuff for school so I don't have to think about it anymore. I didn't do too bad, but I had a LOT to do, so I was good and didn't blog while I was doing homework. It was tough though!
Last Friday I went to the Drunken Fish for the first time with Chris and Sam and Jennifer. It was so good to get together with them and talk about her wedding and mine coming up! I'm so jealous right now! I want to be married.... Sigh... soon enough! So the Drunken Fish was not at all what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but for some reason I was disappointed. The food was pretty good. I didn't get Sushi since I've yet to bring myself to try it, but I got a beef noodle bowl which was fabulous. I have to say, though, I found the restaurant to be a little dirty in general - hidden by the low lighting. It was small and I had a hard time understanding our waitress, but they served Pepsi, which made me pretty happy... :o)
On Saturday I continued the race to finish the homework before going to the City Museum for Ryan's birthday. This was a definitely fun, but I have my reservations. So this place is supposed to be a big playground for adults (well, kids too) right? Cool, I can't remember what Tumble Drum was like, time to relive my inner kiddo. Enter me, ready to play. So, I'm feeling pretty brave, going up really high and crawling through tubes I'm way to big for while my knees are crying and decide to follow the crowd. Big mistake. They all decide to go into a tunnel to which we have no idea where it leads, nor what comes after the "descent." After the "descent" is a VERY dark, VERY narrow, VERY short tunnel that was NEVER ENDING. I'm not really a claustrophobic and not really afraid of the dark, I mean I tend to concentrate more on spiders in the dark, small places than the places being small and dark. Not this place. It was terrifying. Well, take a look for yourself: this is lit up by a flash, imagine it pitch black. Yeah, not cool at all. Especially when the floor decided to go up and make the dark, small tunnel even smaller. Yeah, wow. Warning for future visitors - don't descend the thing that looks like a well. Its super scary. But I'll share some other fun pictures from the night as well...
Eric serenading Ryan on the piano...
Denny and Rob with the creepy mask...
The gigantic kaleidescope
Here it is. THE HOLE. Yeah, imagine it pitch black, totally not cool.
Ryan the birthday boy and his girlfriend Stephanie, they are so cute!
On Sunday I had a shower! But, first let me backtrack to Saturday night after the City Museum. Cue barfing. Yup, all night. Good old mother nature decided to bestow upon me the gift of the stomach flu the night before the shower I've been looking forward to for weeks. Come Sunday morning I was feeling a little weak and slightly nauseas, but I forced down some applesauce and put on a happy face before heading to the shower. Once at the shower, I was okay. I didn't get to enjoy the lunch at Java G's but I got a lot of awesome gifts and got to see some family I hadn't seen in a while! Say a little prayer for Rob's Aunt Billie though. She passed out when the shower was ending and hit her head on a table. We had to call and ambulance and it was definitely a scary moment. From what I understand she is doing fine now, but they are running tests to figure out why it happened.
So concludes my week of chaos... now we are two months from the wedding! Let the two months of chaos begin! I have a bunch of stuff to do still, but everything is coming together now and I can't wait! By the way, I'm still working on the house...
What a weekend! It was tiring, but it was a blast. Saturday was Chris and Samantha's wedding. It was beautiful. It made my quickly approaching wedding all the more real! Sam was beautiful and so was everything else! My pictures on the other hand? Not so beautiful. But you can at least get the idea...
For my wedding addicted readers, or, my recovering wedding addicted readers, I thought I'd make a post about the progress with the wedding. After sitting idle for quite a while with wedding stuff, it's kind of exciting that I've finally reached a point where I am a little more active in the wedding planning process. Why? Because I'm almost two months away!! 10 weeks! Time flies so fast. I can't believe that I've been engaged for a year and a half. But, through it all, I still can't wait for it to be here!
Saturday, my lovely friend Sam is getting married which is making it all the more real for me. I'm so happy too that mother nature has decided to give the world some relief from her incessant goal of recreating the flood that only Noah survived to give her the perfect spring day. 65 degrees and sunny! Woo-hoo! Who could have asked for a better day? I'll definitely be back with pictures of this event next week!
Back to my wedding... I mailed out invitations today! But, this seemingly joyous experience has been marred forever by the US Post Office's decision to charge me for the extra 0.1 oz. that my invitations weigh. That's right, remember my earlier post showing a picture of my lovely invitations with their nice purple stamps sitting so pleasantly in the corner? Yup, they are now accompanied by a lovely 17 cent stamp showing the most beautiful, and majestic, of animals. A ram. Yes, you heard me right, a ram. See for yourself...
Now, don't get me wrong. I think I've been pretty good about not flipping out about stuff with the wedding. I mean, I was fully prepared to buy the American flag stamps because I thought the pretty purple ones cost more. But, I'll admit that after all the work I put into the invites and how perfect they looked when I was finished, I was thoroughly disappointed when they weighed in at 1.1 oz requiring me to fork out another 17 cents a piece on ugly stamps to ruin my perfect invitations. Regardless, I'm so happy to have crossed this milestone! Invitations are out! Let's hope the RSVP's start rolling in! And for those of you near and dear to me reading this, yes, I need a response from you even if you think I know you're coming! I already have my mom and dad's, yes, I have a respond card from those I live with, that means I need one from you too!
Next. I had my first dress fitting last week! It went awesome! While I was there, I picked up several of the bridesmaids dresses and saw the flowergirl dresses! They look awesome! The wedding will be gorgeous. Check out this post and this post to see the dresses...
Today, I discussed the ceremony music with Russell. This is something that has kind of sat in the back of my head for a long time. Much to the disappointment of my dear mom, who dreamed of me walking down the aisle to the Bridal March... I don't think that's what we'll be using. I'm not sure but here's what I've got it narrowed down to for the day. For before the ceremony while the guests are finding seats, I'll be playing a selection of songs from my all time favorite movie, Pride & Prejudice.
If you haven't seen this movie, see it. And, while you're watching it, listen to the music! It is gorgeous!!! For the processional I've got it narrowed down to three:
I think all would be awesome. We'll see what Rob says....
The recessional will be a surprise though!
Finally, Rob and I have to set up our pre-marital "counseling" with our pastor. I'm kinda nervous about this. Obviously, I have no idea what to expect. I hate not knowing what to expect. I suppose it must be done though...
I'll leave you with some wedding related funnies tonight...
I had great plans of doing a nice little get-together with them and giving them all their tickets that way, but I didn't want them to make any plans on the night, so I called all of them. I ::think:: they're excited! I know I am. How perfect that the Fox was playing a show about a wedding?
