Happy Birthday, Puppy Dogs!

Has it really been that long?  Two years?  730 days?  730 and 1/2 days (for any detail oriented people out there)?

The puppies turned two years old this past Sunday.  December 13.  I really can’t believe it.  That means that as of January 27th, we will have had them as a part of our family for two years. 

I really can’t believe it.  They have brought such happiness to us (I sound like a new mom, you would think I was talking about human beings!) and we love them so much.  And God knows they’re spoiled (as Shep is laying on the couch with his head on my lap snoring).

Sometimes it feels like we’ve had them for forever and ever.  And other times it feels like it was just yesterday we drove the 8 hours to go pick them up in southern Georgia.

L worked on Sunday, so we threw a puppy birthday party on Monday instead.  It was complete with birthday hats, singing and presents.    They each got a special chew bone treat and posed so nicely with their hats on.  It’s really quite funny how well they cooperate for photos sometimes.

Dixie wore her hat, but wasn’t as keen about it.  She even had her tail tucked some of the time.  Who knows why, she can be so strange about stuff sometimes.

Dad, why do you do this to me?

I still love you though!

Poor Shep has had a rough year of people poking and prodding at his eye.  Getting good news, then bad news, then ultimately good news.  And it seems to be staying that way.  The tumor was successfully removed, he got to keep his eye, and as of right now, it doesn’t look like he’ll have to have any more surgeries.

So, Happy Birthday to our puppy dogs, we love you!  And they may even make an appearance in our wedding.  Because how cute would Shep look wearing a bowtie like this?

Source – somewhere on this site

Devil in a Blue Dress

Ok, so that title has nothing to do with this post other than it says ‘blue dress.’

The search for bridesmaid dresses has been one of the easiest things we’ve done yet.  For quite some time before we were engaged, L and I talked about our colors being navy, pink and green.  Of course I was thinking about lots of other details for our wedding too, and I thought about dark pink dresses, maybe with a navy sash – similar to the dress I wore to the Steeplechase this past spring.  If we were having a beach wedding, that dress would be appropriate, but we really wanted something slightly more formal.  I love wedding parties that have these bright colors – either that or maybe a green dress, but I didn’t want my girls to look like they were wrapped in bubble gum and I really wanted it to be rewearable.  Actually rewearable, not ‘it’s rewearable, but really it’s not because it looks to bridesmaid-y’ like a dress for a friends wedding I was in a few years ago.  Anyway, I shelved the topic because, well, we weren’t engaged so it didn’t matter.

Then when a friend of mine picked out navy dresses for her wedding that took place this past summer, I fell in love with them.  They were simple, yet very classy.  Flattering on any body type and most definitely rewearable.  Even though I was still not engaged, I knew that I wanted these to be my bridesmaid dresses as well.  As long as my ‘maids agreed.

When I showered and changed at E’s house on evening after a fun girl’s day before going to a wedding that night where I wore the above mentioned dress, she commented on how much she liked it.  In my head, I did an imaginary fist pump.

The dresses are from J. Crew and are $165.  I know that’s not all that expensive, especially considering they likely wouldn’t need alterations, but that’s still a lot of money no matter which way you look at it.  I would occasionally stalk the website to make sure they were still available in navy and to see if there were any sales.  Of course, lots of the other colors were on sale, but never navy. (although, I was tempted to buy some of the other colors for myself.  I told you, I love this dress)

Fast forward to two months later when L proposed.  Now, I could really stalk the dresses.   I saw them on Ebay, in an assortment of sizes and in navy, for a very reasonable price, but I hadn’t asked anyone to be my bridesmaids yet.  Once I asked my girls if they would be my bridesmaids and everyone responded, I sent them all an email thanking them and giving them the details we had nailed down so far (which was basically just the date, place and colors).  I also sent them a picture of the dress and asked them what they thought about it.  Unfortunately, they were no longer on ebay.  There were some, but not as many in navy, which was disappointing.  I was sure to tell them that if they didn’t like it to just say so, to feel free to look on their own, and that I didn’t want them to spend so much money so we would keep an eye out on ebay and for sales.  They all responded saying they loved the dress and that they were ok with the price. 

Source

I then realized that I had missed a J. Crew sale of 25% off any purchase of $150 or more.  Damn!  That would have brought the dress down to around $125.  Oh well.

Days later, I got another email with a similar sale.  25% off $150+ and 30% off $250+.  The sale was only three days long and I contemplated talking to everyone to see if they would be interested in buying it.  I know that Christmas is just around the corner and that not everyone has extra cash laying around, so I didn’t want to put any one out.  Plus, I also didn’t want to rush them.  They all said they loved the dress, but I didn’t want them to feel like I was pushing them. 

I was telling CR, my maid of honor, about this when I saw her on Saturday, and her reaction of, “Oh my God, I love the dress, yes, let’s definitely order it!” told me that most of the other girls would probably feel the same way. (There’s a reason this girl is my MOH .

Finally, on Sunday, the last day of the sale, I emailed them all telling them about it and asking if they were interested in moving forward.  I made sure to note that if they wanted to look around some more, that I was TOTALLY ok with that, but just wanted to mention the sale since they initially said they liked it.  Additionally, I told them that I would buy all the dresses, which would give us the 30% discount and they could pay me back when they had the money because I know this is an expensive time of year.

Each girl replied back saying they loved the dress and would like to order it – and they loved the sale price even more.  Since I would be ordering all of them at one time, we would receive the larger discount bringing each dress down to $115.  Yes, that’s right.  The dress that is normally $165, we got for $115!

I gathered their sizes and placed the order Sunday night.  I decided to cover the tax and shipping on the dresses.  I wish I could put more toward the dress for them, but unfortunately it’s just not in the budget at the moment.  I received an email yesterday saying my order had been shipped and today, they are in my hot little hands!

You’ve got to give J. Crew credit, they always ship so quickly.  I paid for standard 3-5 day shipping, ordered Sunday night and received it Tuesday afternoon!  I’ll be dropping them off to all my girls this week so they can try them on and make sure they fit.  Hooray!  A big task done and one less thing for them to think about!

L’s sister, J (another of my bridesmaids), may also be using this dress in her wedding.  Except in black and in a different material.  It is just me and her fiance’s sister in her wedding and she initially told us to just pick black dresses.  I wanted to buy this dress in black for her wedding, and found it on ebay for $20, so I grabbed it.  J later came back with some dresses she wanted us to pick from so we could maybe wear the same one and this was one of the choices.  When I told her I already had it in black, that seemed to make her decision for her (although I did tell her that I didn’t mind if she didn’t want to choose it).  Anyway, I believe we are wearing pink shoes for her wedding, which is what I am thinking about for my girls.  Looks like our BMs might be slightly similar.

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Where Has the Time Gone?

Ed. Note: This is the post that I wrote and lost the other day.  I stumbled upon it saved in my drafts folder – I had no idea it was there!  The dates are a little off because I don’t feel like editing this from when it was written on 12/9.

Wow, my poor little blog has been ignored since November 19.  And before then, it wasn’t very much better.  You would think that since I haven’t had a job for, oh four and a half months now, that I would have plenty of time on my hands.

In those months, I have found plenty to keep myself busy with – especially now that we’re engaged.  If I wasn’t spending every waking moment searching for a venue, then I was mailing cupcakes or making envelopes (more on that after Christmas).  In anycase, I’ve been busy.

After driving to and from Connecticut and only spending two days there (that’s a 12 hour drive for anyone that’s counting), December was right around the corner.

We had planned to get our tree on the first Saturday inDecember – the same as last year.  We drive up into the mountains so we can cut our own.  Well, Saturday came and we had been to a Christmas party the night before and after consuming one too many root beer float shots, I slept later than we had planned.  And it was kind of gross out, so we postponed to the next day.

Sunday we drove up to Boone, NC (where Appalachain State University is) and cut down our tree and came home (more on that soon, too).  We hung out at the house for 2 hours while L worked on homework and I finished making envelopes before heading to a friends house that night for dinner where we stayed until 10:30.

Then I started thinking… when the heck were we going to put up the tree??  Or the other decorations for that matter?  This is our schedule:

Monday (12/7)
Day: L works at part-time station till 6; I run errands getting stuff for a party that night and prepare
Night: I have ornament exchange party at a friend’s house; L goes for drinks with all the husbands who weren’t invited to the party

Tuesday (yesterday)
Day: L works 24 hours at full-time job; I run errands to get supplies for a banner he asked me to make for a retirement party they are hosting at work next week and then clean the house so I can put out Christmas decorations.
Night: This is when I was going to decorate inside the house (minus the tree that was still in the garage in a bucket of water)

Wednesday (today):
Day: L works at part-time station; I finish any decorating I can do on my own
Night: We go to an award ceremony and dinner for his captain at work

Thursday:
Day: L works 24 hours; I start making cookies for the retirement party they are hosting next week.
Night: L is still at work; I do wedding research stuff.

Friday:
Day: L works till 6 at part-time station; I work on wedding stuff, etc.
Night: We have L’s work Christmas party at 6:30 and have a co-ed baby shower at 7.  Hmm, the Christmas party is 45 minutes away and the baby shower is in town where we live.  We will obviously be very late to the latter.

Saturday:
Day: We were supposed to run in a 5k, but L is working 24 hours for someone else.  I am no longer running because I didn’t register early enough and now it’s like $40.
Night: L is still working, but we have also been invited to a graduation celebration for his friend’s wife.  I may still go bc the friend’s wife is friend’s with CR.

Sunday:
Day: L works 24 hours for his normal shift

Monday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night:  Nothing.  Wait, what?  Did I just write ‘nothing’?  One night that we don’t have planned.  I guess we can decorate the tree this night!

Tuesday:
Day:  L works 24 hours
Night: L still working.  I’m going to dinner with CR.

Wednesday:
Day: L works till 6 at his part-time station
Night:  We have the monthly business meeting at the VFD.  Big meeting because we’re voting on a lot of positions.

Thursday:
Leave for his parent’s house and go to a beach music party that night

Friday:
Spend some time seeing family in friends near his parents’; drive back Friday night for a friend’s party.

Saturday:
Attend E’s graduation (she got her Master’s!), then drive back to L’s parent’s house to go to a family dinner party that night.

Sunday:
Attend a second family dinner party with L’s family.

Monday:
Drive together to CT

Tuesday, Wednesday:
Enjoy CT

Thursday (Christmas Eve):
L flies back to his parent’s house and has dinner with them.  Then drives to Charlotte to work to let someone go home early that night.

Friday (Christmas Day):
L works his scheduled 24 hours; I’m in CT with the fam

Saturday:
L works his part-time job; I’m still in CT

Sunday:
L works 24 hours; I drive back from CT

***

So, there you have it.  We would be able to put up and decorate our tree on exactly one day.  and that happened to be 3 days before we go out of town.  Well, that’s not very much fun.  And a waste of a very pretty (and expensive) tree!

The other night, L said he would put in for a stand-by vacation day for yesterday so we could get some stuff done around the house.  When I texted him yesterday morning at 8:30 to see if he got it, he hadn’t.  It’s all dependent on how many people have also requested a day and how many other people are already on approved vacations or call in sick.  It didn’t look like he would get the night off either.

I continued on with my day.  Made his retirement banners, got a gift together for the baby shower and cleaned the house.  He texted me letting me know that he was getting moved to a different station for the night and I was bummed that he wasn’t able to come home.  I had just finished cleaning and sat down to watch a rerun of the Gilmore Girls when the doorbell rang.

Finally!  The kid I bought a wreath from for a school fundraiser was finally delivering it.  I opened the door and it was no pimle face teenager – it was L!  He had gotten the night off.

He did admit though, that he didn’t think it was going to happen and he actually was moved to a different station.  But just before he left they called him back and told him he could go home.

So, we put up the tree and decorated it and put up some of the outside decorations.  Unfortunately, it was raining really hard, so we couldn’t put them all up. 

Our tree is so pretty and I”m so glad we got it up!

I am really going to try to be a better blogger and post everday like I used to.

Cinderella Slipper

I feel very disorganized with our wedding planning.  I’m surprised by this, especially since I have so much spare time on my hands, but I feel like I just keep jumping around from task to task.

Tonight’s ADD task of the moment is shoes. 

I’ve known for quite some time that I would most likely  not be wearing traditional white heels. 

And maybe I wouldn’t wear heels at all. I am 5′ 8″ and L is between 6′ 1″ and 6′ 2″.  He’s taller than me, even with my highest heels, but not by much.  My favorite time is when I am barefoot and he is wearing either his work boots or the shoes with his dressy uniform for work.  He towers over me and envelopes me in his arms and it makes me safe – and little.

I thought about wearing a pair of Rainbows and spray painting them white.  1. They are amazingly comfortable and 2. They are ’me’.  You can find me in Rainbows for probably 2/3 of the year.

Then I saw in the store one day that they now make white Rainbows with Swarovski crystals on the straps!

Source

But for Rainbows to be comfortable, you have to wear them a while to break them in and if I wear white ones for awhile, then they’re going to get dirty feet marks on them.  They were still an option – long before we were engaged.

I also threw around the idea of wearing plain old ballet slippers.  Not ballet flats, but good ‘ol ballet slippers. 

Source

You can’t get much shorter than in these.  Plus, since I danced for 15 years, it would be personal as well.

But I really like the “shoe shots”  and let’s face it, heels just make you feel prettier.  At least they make me feel prettier.

Source

I don’t want to feel “stumpy” on my wedding day either.  So I’ve gone back to the idea of pretty heels.  I can always switch into flip flops, or let’s face it, just go barefoot, later in the evening if I want.

For anyone that knows me, you know I’m going to choose pink.  I haven’t looked extensively yet, but have perused a couple shoe sites here and there (I told you, I keep jumping from one task to another).  I had looked at Zappos before, but sometimes that site overwhelms me.

Anyway, I was reading Weddingbee tonight (it feels so good to be back, by the way.  Although I haven’t read it as much as I used to, but I think it has to do with my new found ADD.) and saw Ms. Potato Chips’ post about finding her shoes.

I saw a pair of pink lovelies at the bottom of her post and immediately went to Zappos (where she found hers) to get a closer look.  But before I ever found the ones in her post, I found these and decided I HAVE to have them.

Source

They are exactly what I’m looking for – although at 3.25″ tall, they’re a little high.  Not that I can’t handle that, I’m a high heel girl (and can run at lightning fast speeds across Grand Central Terminal in them if it means catching the last train of rush hour), but it just means I’ll be that much closer to L’s height.

There is one other itsty, bitsy, tiny detail that puts them out of my reach.

$289.

Yup, that’s the price tag associated with these beauties.  Unfortunately, that just doesn’t really fall into our budget.  But they are sooo perfect.

I sent L a picture of them, sans price tag, and asked if he would buy them for me.  He said, and I quote, “Sure sweetie, I’ll buy them for you.”  It wasn’t until I wrote back, “really?” that he asked how much they were and then said probably not.

Sad face.

He then said that I could have the shoes if he could get a new leather helmet if he makes assistant chief at the volunteer department at next week’s meeting.

(Quick helmet back story: they are different colors for different ranks.  It varies by department, but here is is black for a firefighter, red for a captain and white for an assistant chief/the chief.  You can paint them, but L bought a new helmet when he made captain and wants another if/when he makes asst. chief.  Really so he can hang them all on the wall one day and see his journey through helmets.  Sounds cheesy, but I actually understand where he’s coming from even if I do give him a hard time about it.  The kicker is the price tag.  Brand new, these helmets are about $500!  You can get them on eBay for less, but they’re still around $200-300, I think.)

Hmm… maybe I’ll have to consider him getting that helmet if it means I can get the shoes

But perhaps I’ll keep looking for a more reasonably priced pair. 

A girl can dream though!

UGH!

I just wrote a whole long post about how busy I’ve been and giving a bit of an update and when I hit ‘publish’, the whole thing disappeared.  Damnit.

Now I Get To Pop The Question – My How To

I’ve been waiting and waiting to ask my girls if they will be my bridesmaids.  L already popped the question to me, now it was my turn to pop a question to them.  I wanted to come up with a cute way to ask them, and in a previous post I mentioned that I was tossing around the idea of a wine bottle with a customized label (I would make the label, not buy) or getting them a cupcake and creating some sort of note.

I couldn’t wait any longer – I had to do this.  There have been so many times when I wanted to call or email them with a question or suggestion, but couldn’t because I haven’t asked them yet.  Not to say that I haven’t already asked them for advice and opinions, because I have – I just haven’t been able to ask them bridesmaid-related questions like, what do you think about this dress for you guys?

I’m sure that they all know that I am going to ask them, because we’ve talked about it in the past and these are my very best friends, but I am no way going to assume they will be my bridesmaids.  We were all in another friend’s wedding a few years ago who never actually asked us.  She just started sending us stuff for dresses and asked us when we wanted to go try them on, etc.  We all would have said yes regardless, but it was a little annoying that she didn’t ask.

Back to deciding how to do it.  I ended up with the cupcake idea.  There is one that I have to mail (A lives in CA) and two others that would be easier to mail so I could ask sooner.  I figured mailing a cupcake would be a whole lot cheaper than mailing a bottle of wine.  And cheaper to buy or make too.

I was going to make the cupcakes so it would be less expensive, but then I would still have to hunt out boxes that would be appropriate to mail them in.  So I went to a new cupcake bakery in town and they sell individual boxes to go with the cupcakes for $2 – so I just decided to get those and buy the cupcakes while I was there.  They’re definitely prettier than mine would have been, they are super tasty and really, not that expensive.

When I walked in and ordered 5 cupcakes with gift boxes and then a 6th cupcake (there is no way I could walk out of that store with a bag full of cupcakes and not be able to eat one!) the woman asked what the occasion was.  When I told her I was asking friends to be my bridesmaids, she thought it was absolutely the cutest idea ever.  She spread the news to the two other women who worked there who were equally as giddy.  The thing about these guys that work at SAS Cupcakes is that it didn’t seem fake.  One woman suggested putting small little penants in the cupcakes.  She came back with two options.  One had a ring on it and said “Congratulations!”, but I didn’t like that because it felt like I was congratulating myself – or congratulating my girls for asking them.  It was really meant more for someone to give it to a bride.  The second was a Valentine’s one that said “Be Mine”, she suggested that one so it was like, “be my bridesmaid”.  Plus, it was pink and black so it wasn’t too Valentine-y.

I chose cupcakes that had pink icing, they boxed them up for me and sent me on my way.  The whole time they made a fuss about me being a bride and it was cute.  I’d lie if I said it didn’t make me feel special.  They normally charge for the penants, but gave them to me for free – plus they gave me the 6th cupcake for myself for free .

When I got home, I got started on making the cards to go with them.  I already had an idea of what I wanted to do.  Our colors are navy, green and pink.  I found some navy postcards on sale at Paper Source the other day.  It was a pack of 50 for $3.00.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but figured for that price I would pick them up and use them for something. 

Each card was going to start with the navy postcard.  I was going to add a pink layer and then a green and white polka dot paper as the top layer.  I then would use my Gocco to print the phrase on the green paper.    Pretty exciting because I already had everything I needed for this. 

The navy postcards were previously purchased with no purpose in mind.  The pink was a roll of wrapping paper (also from PaperSource) that I bought to use to line the envelopes of our save the dates.  And the green was a random piece of 12×12 scrapbooking paper that I bought awhile ago to use for something else.  I had one sheet and wasn’t sure it would be enough since I had used small pieces for other stuff, but somehow I managed to get 5 pieces out of it.

So, without further ado, here is the step-by-step process and the finished product at the end.

First I started by designing the text for the card.  I use the term ‘design’ loosley, because all I really did was type it up in Word using the Curlz font.  I did, however, know how big it needed to be.  The navy postcards are 6″ x 4.25″.  I wanted a small border showing, so I would cut the second layer (pink) a .5″ smaller: 5.5″ x 3.75″ -  and then the final layer (green – where the text would be) a .5″ smaller than that: 5″ x 3.25″.  I think the text came out to somewhere around 4″ x almost 3″.  I used a font size of about 40.  I printed it on a laser printer so that it would be compatiable with my Gocco.  (To burn a Gocco screen, the image needs to be carbon based.  So, printed from a laser jet, copy machine or drawn/written using a carbon based pen).

Since the Gocco screens are hard to get and can be expensive, I burned both messages on one screen.  This is me aligning the two pages on my Gocco getting ready to burn the screen.

I closed the lid and checked to make sure everything was lined up correctly and there were no overlaps or letters getting cut off.

I insterted a screen onto the bottom side of the glass and then screwed in the two flash bulbs into the separeate “bulb house” and inserted that part onto the top of the Gocco.  Press down firmly in one motion and let the bulbs flash.  This is what burns the image onto the screen.

Open the Gocco and peel back the papers that are most likely stuck to the screen (that’s a good thing).  You can see my text on the screen now.

Next step was to cut the green paper to the correct size (5″ x 3.25″).  I was really surprised that I managed to get all 5 pieces out of it – and just barely.  I’ve realized that I am a messy crafter.  This is surprising because I like to be neat.  I start off good, but a mess always follows.  I need more of a system.  For instance, I probably should have cut all the paper first, then got out the Gocco and done that.  I had stuff all over the table and scraps everywhere.

Next, I lined up the paper I would be printing on.  You can see through the glass on top of the Gocco so I could match everything up.  Then, I inked the screen and insterted it back into the Gocco.  I only inked the “will you be my bridesmaid” part first because it was hard to line up sheets for both messages and I didn’t want to risk messing it up.  I used the white paper to mark where the bottom of the green paper would be so that I could easily line up all the pieces.

Press down firmly to make a print.

Voila!  I removed the paper and set it off to the side to dry and inserted the next piece and printed. Etc.

The instructions say to liberally ink the screen, but I did it minimally since I was only printing 5 cards and didn’t want to waste ink.  Speaking of not wanting to waste ink, I took a scrap piece of card stock and scraped the unused ink and spread it on the “will you be my maid of honor” text. 

This is the screen once I scraped off the excess ink and moved it to the second phrase.  I had to add a little extra from the tube too.  I didn’t want to risk the print not coming out dark enough since I didn’t have any extra pieces of green paper in the event of an error.

Next, I cute the pink pieces from the roll of wrapping paper.  It is PaperSource wrapping paper in fuschia.  I love it because it doesn’t have the shiny finish on it.  I must admit though that it was much harder to cut out the small pieces than I originally thought it would be.  Since it’s rolled up it was hard to keep flat.  Plus the length of the paper was larger than my paper cutter, so first I had to cut the length of and then cut it in half so it would fit on my paper cutter.  All the while, trying to cut as straight as possible.  Then I had to trim all sides so that I knew it was straight, and finally trim down to size.

These are the PaperSource postcards in Night that would serve as the base of the notecard.

I started using a glue stick on the pink pieces to stick them to the postcards because I didn’t want to waste my Xyron adhesive.  Then I thought to myself, isn’t this exactly why I bought the Xyron?!  Why yes, yes it was.  This was one of those purchases I made over the summer when I was anticipating the engagement.  I have the Xyron 5″ Creation Station.  It puts an even layer of adhesive on the back of anything up to 5″ wide.  I wanted one of the bigger ones, but they were just too expensive.  I bought this one with a 50% off coupon from AC Moore.  I had used a smaller Xyron before and liked it, and this one didn’t disappoint.  It’s so fast, easy and mess free.  No more having to use multiple pieces of scrap paper to put under the piece I’m using the glue stick on.  No more getting glue all over my fingertips (I told you, I’m a messy crafter).  Plus, I was able to put it down and smooth it out easily without any of the weird creases that I got with a glue stick when using thin paper – and no glue clumps either. 

Simply put the paper in the feeder and turn the crank and watch it come out the other side.

It’s got a handy-dandy little cutter on the other side that slides across easily to cut your project off the roll.

Once you cut it off, peel back the celophane paper.  The adhesive is on the white, waxy paper which gets stuck to your project.  The celophane pulls the adhesive off of the white part where your project is not.  Make sense?  Sort of?

Once you peel the celophane off, easily peel off your project.  I did that and then stuck it onto the post card.  This one is a little off center, but the others are better.  There are a few different kinds of adhesive you can buy for the Xryon.  I was using the permanent kind because that’s what came with it.  They also have a removable kind, a laminate and a magnet/laminate.

After the Gocco ink dried, I repeated this process with the green pieces.  Rather than doing each piece individually and cutting it off, I kept feeding them through one after another to save adhesive.  Every time you cut a piece off, you get at least an inch of wasted adhesive (you can see in one of the photos above).  I wanted to get the most for my money so I put them close together so I wasn’t wasteful.

I then positioned them on top of the pink layer to finish off the front.  I think they look really great!  I was really very happy with them!

I added a piece of the pink in the same size as before to the back so that I could write a note to each girl.

This is the cupcake all boxed up.  They suggest wrapping the box in Saran wrap if you’re not going to eat them that day.  Since it could be a couple days before my girls get them, I went the extra mile.  Each box has a small elevated cardboard piece in the bottom with a circle cut in it meant to steady the cupcake.  Well, I cut some wooden skewers and put two in each cupcake to help steady it even more.  I know they’ll get tossed around in the mail and the icing will smush, but every little bit helps.  Plus, even if they’re smushed, they’ll still taste good.  I also took out that cardboard piece and wrapped saran wrap over the cupcake and underneath the cardboard and placed it back in the box.  Then I wrapped the whole box in Saran wrap like they suggest.

Note cards with personal notes on each one.

I was sad because the notecards were bigger than the cupcake box which was a challenge when I wrapped them to mail.  There was no way around it, they had to get bent a little.  But luckily the wording lined up perfectly and was centered on the box!

All wrapped up, addressed and ready to go!

I dropped these babies off at the post office this morning.  I think most girls will get them tomorrow (fingers crossed), and A will probably get hers Saturday.

Here’s a breakdown of the project:

PaperSource Postcards – Pack of 50 in Night – onsale for $3.00
PaperSource Wrapping Paper – Fuschia – $5/roll (bought to actually use for Save the Date envelope liners)
PaperSource Green and White Polka Dot Scrapbooking Paper – one piece – I don’t remember how much it was because I randomly bought it weeks ago.
5 Cupcakes from SAS Cupcakse – $2.75/each
5 Cupcake Gift Boxes from SAS Cupcakes – $2/each
5 “Be Mine” Cupcake Penants from SAS Cupcakes – they were ‘on the house’, not sure how much they charge for them
Brown shipping paper – already had
Gocco screens, ink and bulbs – already had
Shipping for 5 cupcakes – $24

I think my girls will be happy to get a cupcake in the mail – and I sure hope they say “YES!”

Since I was so happy with the way the notecards came out, I’m going to sell them in my Etsy shop.  Check back, they’ll be up soon – and remember, everything in there is customizable (colors, set ups, etc.).

Step One: The Venue

Starting the day after L and I got engaged, we dove into wedding planning.  Prior to our engagement, since you all know we had been talking about this for some time, we had already discussed the time of year that we wanted and knew that September would be best.  It was still warm (especially down here) and kind of summery, but it’s not the height of the heat-wave season.  May or June would have been options too, but his sister is getting married in May, so that was a no-go.

We discussed Labor Day weekend because it would give guests an extra day to travel – especially since my family will be coming all the way from CT and L’s family would be coming from the Raleigh-area.  Additionally, we could do it on a Sunday and take advantage of the often lower Sunday-rates, but our guests wouldn’t have to go to work the next day.  When it came time to actually planning, we were afraid that that weekend may be booked at many venues already so we thought of other weekends.  The second weekend in September is out because it is September 11 and though it will be 10 years after that tragic incident, about 70% of the guests will be firefighters and we wouldn’t be able to get away without mentioning it – and really, who wants to talk about that on their wedding day?

So, we set out researching every place we could find in the Charlotte area and near the coast.  I spent hours google searching, reading blogs, wedding planning websites, etc.  I finally came up with a list – a long list.  At the end of our first engaged weekend, we did some drive-by’s in the Charlotte area.  The following week, I did more research and called.  Called and called and called looking for more information on pricing and availability.  We found more places than expected that were available at some point on Labor Day weekend.  The next weekend we headed out to Wilmington to hit a small bridal show and look at a ton of places there too.  In both Charlotte and Wilmington we found contenders.  We made some more appointments in Charlotte and continued looking.

We have about twice as much money as I thought we would have, but I just can’t get over how much catering costs!  We got our guest list down as much as we possibly could, but the catering was coming to about $11,000-13,000 on average.  Holy crap, that is pretty much our entire budget.  We figured we would just find a way to make it work.  Somehow.

There were just a couple other venues we were going to look at – another one near the coast and one in Winston-Salem which is about 1 1/2 hrs north of Charlotte.  We hit the one at the coast first one day and it was absolutely gorgeous!  The town was so quaint and cute and I fell in love.  It was southern, but reminded me so much of New England at the same time.  The price was do-able too.  Not inexpensive, but not as expensive as some of the other contenders.

Our last stop was the one in Winston-Salem which we went to see when they had a non-profit party going on.  It’s an old federal building and is gorgeous, cool, unique and massive.  There is an historic courtroom upstairs that you can get married in and then a non-typical ballroom on the main level for the reception.  When we saw it, we weren’t able to meet with any one about costs and we were afraid it was going to be WAY out of our price range.  We arranged for another meeting when we could sit down and talk numbers last week.  At this point, we had narrowed our search down to four.

In no particular order:

1. Winston-Salem place (depending on the cost)
2. Place on the Coast
3. A cool wharehousy place in Charlotte
4. A combination of a spot on the Riverwalk in Wilmington and a catering hall just a block away with river views.

We had our meeting at the place in Winston-Salem and at first thought from what the guy was saying that it was going to be too expensive, but then he kept talking and we realized that it was by far the most reasonable option – plus, we loved it!

Not only that, but they were available on Sunday, September 5 – our ideal date!  At this point, more and more places were unavailable that day.  We exchanged several glances during the meeting, knowing that this was the place.  He gave us a pseudo contract to take home and look over.

This place includes everything we need (tables, chairs, linens, glassware, china, lighting, food, drinks, EVERYTHING) and it is only an $8,000 minimum – which we will easily meet, but not really go over.  Please keep in mind that a lot of those places that I noted above that were in the 11-13k range didn’t all include tables, linens, etc. – which are all freaking expensive in their own right.

We headed back to L’s parent’s house (we were staying there while Shep had his surgery) and in his typical mom fashion, she wasn’t pleased.  I’m not even going to get into that now.  But all that mattered was that we loved it.

After discussing it over some more and reviewing the pseudo contract again, we knew this was the place.  Just to be sure, I contacted a couple of vendors in that area and asked them for feedback if they had worked there before and we went to a bridal show in the area last weekend and did the same thing.  Of all people that had worked there, they loved it and their couples were always very pleased. 

We made an appointment for this morning to draw up an official contract and make a deposit – and that’s where we went today! 

It’s in writing.  Our event is in pen.  They have our money.  And we have a PLACE AND A DAY to get married now!  Woo hoo!!!

Now on to the photographer/videographer search.

Here are some photos of it – both set up for an event and after an event:

 
Can you imagine guests rolling up to this place and being like, “Kris and [L] are getting married here?!”  Yeah, this place is like a fairy tale for me!  Oh, and we’re so going to have our monogram up there in place of those paw prints (there was an animal shelter fundraiser the night we went – how fitting for us)!

  From a magazine – for a better view.

Inside foyer outside the ballroom.  There will be high cocktail tables and a few tall chairs and this is where the cocktail hour will be.  We saw it set up for the event and it looked great with just the tables and some tea lights.

Inside the ballroom earlier today.  Yeah, the white draping is included at no extra charge.

Courtroom where the ceremony will be.  There had been a cocktail event there – that’s why there it isn’t cleaned up.  See the above photo from the mag to see it set up for a wedding.

Oh gosh!  We’re so excited!!

 

Your Opinion Is Needed, Part II

I feel like I’ve been ignoring this little blog of mine, but I’ve been busy…

WE’VE GOT A WEDDING TO PLAN!!!

I’m going to try and get back into it, because one of the most time sensitive tasks is just about final.  We’ve got a venue – just about – we’re going to sign our contract tomorrow morning!  I’ll definitely share more info and pictures once that’s done.  Also exciting is that we will have our ideal date!

Moving on…

I haven’t asked anyone to be in my wedding party yet and nor has L.  We both wanted to wait until we had a definite time and place.  There are five girls that I will ask to stand up there with me.  CR as my maid of honor and E, LM, A, L’s sister J as bridesmaids.  I struggled with two of my  high school friends.  About whether to ask them or not.  And it was a very difficult decision.  I finally decided not to ask them, not as a snub though.  I had discussed this with them a few months ago when we were together, kind of in passing as part of another conversation we had about the whole bridesmaid role, and they both said that they wouldn’t be offended if I didn’t ask them and would be just as happy and excited to sit in the audience.

In anycase, I’ve come up with a cute idea to ask the girls that I will be asking.  At first I thought of creating a label for a wine bottle (I’m being all crafty these days – and since the job search still sucks, I have the time to do it) asking the to be my bridesmaid because we all love our trips to wine country, etc.

Then I thought about either making them or buying them each a cupcake and creating a small note to sit on top of the cupcake asking them and mailing it or dropping it off to each of their houses.  After tomorrow, I’ll finally be able to decide.

L is the one that needs your help.  I’ve searched the internet for the answer, and now I’m coming to you guys.

He will have 4-5 guys as his groomsmen.  It is apparently a southern/NC tradition to have the groom’s father serve as best man.   L being the traditional guy that he is, said that that is what he would do.  But he struggles with this decision.  He and his father have a very “business” relationship.  His family owns 2 related businesses and L has been working since a very young age. 

So he wants to know if it is impolite/bad etiquette to ask his dad to be a groomsmen, but ask one of his friends to be best man?????

I found answers going both ways – some say that it is bad etiquette and some say as long as your dad doesn’t care, it doesn’t matter. 

I’m kind of on the fence, leaning more toward, if his dad is OK with just being a groomsmen, then go with that.  But more importantly, go with whatever makes him happy.  As long as nothing is done to intentionally hurt someone, then we (he) should do what makes him happy.  If he doesn’t want his dad up there and is only asking him for tradition’s sake, then I say scrap it.

They don’t have a bad relationship at all – they just aren’t super close.  It’s a toss up – but what do you think??? Is it OK to ask him to be a groomsmen, but not the best man?

Your Opinion Is Needed

Ok, so as we wade through the process of trying to pick a location, I feel like we’re getting no where.  Some of the places we initially found that were available on our ideal date are no longer available.  And although we are somewhat flexible on the date, some of the places would be cut if they weren’t on a Sunday because we can’t afford them.

Anyway, I found this place on the coast that I really love – and I think L will love it too (I just found it last night and he was at work).  Anyway, they’re not available Labor Day weekend, and the only Saturday in September they are available is the 11th  – which is a no go for us.  August is a possibility, but I’m concerned about it being too warm for an outdoor ceremony – even in the evening.

Here is my question.  I ask that you be completely honest.  Our colors are going to be navy and apple green with dark pink accents.  We both love those colors and are set on them.  If we were to go with a Saturday on the first or second weekend in October, do you think that is too late in the year to use those colors???

My thoughts: Yes, they are too summery to use in October.  On the other hand, it would be on the water so does that give us a little more leeway?  Especially since it will still be warm?  I know it’s our wedding and we can do whatever we want but my fear would be that if we went with those colors in October people would make comments about them not being the right season.  A friend of mine got married on Sept. 8th a few years ago and her colors were black and red.  The colors were fine, but she chose black velvet table clothes.  In September.  The velvet didn’t go.  And we noticed it. 

What do you think?  You won’t hurt my feelings if you tell me it would look dumb.  I would rather know that other people think that than go with it and have people making comments when we weren’t around.

The First (And The Only)

L and I have been in full wedding planning mode since he proposed.  Really, just trying to find a venue and secure a date.  That’s all I really care about at this point.  We’re hoping for the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to give people an extra day to travel and to take advantage of the lower Sunday rates all at the same time.

I have researched and gathered pricing and availability information from everywhere in the Charlotte area.  And then I did the same for the Wilmington/beach area since we want to consider that as well.  Then, together, we looked at the information and the websites in detail and created a ranked spreadsheet of the different venues.  We nixed any that were just too expensive and then decided on which ones we needed/wanted to look at, etc. 

Last Sunday, we drove around a bunch of places doing drive bys and were able to cut a few more off the list just based on looks, etc.  Then I made appointments for us to meet with some of the venues.  This past Friday we went to four places, another one on Saturday and yesterday we drove to Wilmington (and back in one day – a little more than 3 hours each way) to hit a small bridal show and visit 3 other venues, plus check out some other things in the area.

Meanwhile, we also put together our guest list.  It started off at close to 250 people, which is just way too high for the budget that we have.  We are pretty much splitting the cost of this wedding with my parents.  About 99% of our half is coming from L.  It doesn’t help that I don’t have a job right now.  Even so, we have about $5000 more to spend than we originally thought we would and I am very grateful to my parents for that.  They are contributing a significantly greater amount than I thought they would be able to.

So we tried to cut our list down and got it to about 200.  Now, going by the approximately-80%-of-your-guest-list-will-actually-come-to-your-wedding rule, we were at about 160.   As we continue to look at venues, we were estimating about 130-150 guests.  If it were in Wilmington, it would probably be on the lower end of that, but can’t count on that.  Going through all the information from all of these venues, it’s becoming real that we can barely afford the 150 number.  It would leave very little room for anything else. 

I am fine with doing a lot DIY things and actually look forward to it.  I pride myself on being a bargain shopper and know that will help things in the long run.  The only thing I want to splurge on is photography.  I would rather have a smaller wedding and have it at a nicer location or not have to worry about scraping pennies together, rather than having a huge guest list.  L says that he wants a big party – the ceremony is important to him too – but he is looking forward to a big celebration with friends.  He too, says that he’s fine with having a smaller guest list, but this is where it started.

As we were driving around in between appointments discussing one of the venues, I mentioned how we need to cut the list even more because I was afraid this was going to very difficult to afford this with the number that we have now.  This eventually led to him saying how he can’t help it that his family is so much larger than mine and that he’s inviting hardly any friends because of that and he has cut so many people off the list that he wants to invite.  He basically made me feel horribly for this and said how I’m putting this all on him and blaming him because his family is so big, etc. 

At the same time, it’s not my fault that my family is smaller, allowing me to invite more friends.  But let’s be clear, I really don’t have a ton of friends.  I don’t know nearlyas many people as he does.  And, based on the names I’ve ssen on the guest list, I really don’t know who all these people are that he wants to invite that he can’t.  He says that right now his list is family and close friends and that’s it, but in my opinion, that’s what a wedding should be. 

Sure, if we had 30 or 40 or $50,000 to spend on a wedding, we could invite more people who were casual friends, etc., but we don’t.  Which means that we need to invite those that matter the most to us.  The ones who you wouldn’t want to miss out on this special and important day.

Yesterday was our first, and what I hope is our only, fight about this process.  He said that I should give him some leeway since he is paying for half of this wedding which I should just consider would be covering his large guest list.  That really hurt my feelings because he always said that would be ‘our’ contribution.  I know it’s his money, but it just really, really hurt my feelings the way he said it.  He also through at me, that I “should see the list with all the people on it that he wants to invite and can’t.  Then [I] would really see how many people [he has] cut.”  And that he has cut and cut and cut and he just can’t get rid of any other people.  I asked who all this family was and if it were necessary to invite others who were not considered immediately family since the only family I’m inviting is immediate.  He said they are family and they have to be invited and that his mom said so too.  It doesn’t help that his sister is getting married a few months before us.  I asked if he reminded his mom that our budget is likely significantly less than what his sister’s is and he said he had.

In additon to our individual lists, we also have a mutual list made up of all friends.  This list is not small by any means and I reminded him of this when he said that he has hardly any friends invited.  I also reminded him that there was a good chunk of people on my list that should technically be on the mutual list and that he was the one who pointed that out when we created the list.  If this was how he wanted to compare lists, then I was going to move those people to the mutual list.

When we got home last night, that’s why I did.  I moved the mutals on my list to the mutual list and then looked at the numbers again.  On his individual list, 39% of the guests were in the ‘friend’ category.  On my list, 24% of the guests were in the ‘friend’ category.  When I pointed this out, he said it was only because I moved a bunch of mine to the mutual list.  I then reminded him, once again, that he was the one who said they should be on the mutual list.

After that, I cut even more people from my list.  People that I want to be there.  Some that I want to be there, but am pretty sure won’t be able to come due to distance and finances.  But I cut them, since he has “made the sacrafices with this guest list.”  He made a few moves and we got the total number down from 200 to 160.  This made me much happier and at this point we were much more civil. 

But the whole argument that happened the few hours before really annoyed me, hurt me and angered me. 

First of all, I refuse to be miserable during this process.  I have seen how this is frustrating me some to not be able to find someplace that we can easily afford.  Perhaps now that we’ve cut the list, this will help.  Based on a few prices we’ve found, this cut can save us up to $3000 which is a huge amount of money.  Second, not only do I not want to be miserable, I do NOT want to argue during this process.

Sure there has been a disappointment, he doesn’t like a venue that I LOVE and think would be perfect.  But we don’t argue about it.  If he doesn’t like it, fine.  There are other places that we both like.  Am I disappointed?  Absolutely.  Do I think it’s a good deal and would allow us to shop around for other components and potentially save money?  Yes.  But I don’t want to choose a venue that he doesn’t like just because I do.  Long before we ever got engaged, I told him that I didn’t want to do this planning by myself (not saying that my friends and mom wouldn’t help me), but that I wanted to do it together because it is OUR wedding.

As far as the guest list goes, he says we are on the same page.  Especially with the whole would-rather-have-a-smaller-but-nicer-wedding-rather-than-a-larger-but-not-as-nice-wedding.  But when it comes down to it, that’s now how he made it out.  And whether I “took it the wrong way” or not, that’s how it came across. 

I think we’re ok with where we are now with the guest list.  I’m still very sad with three of the people (plus their husbands) that I had to cut from my list, but perhaps they can take the place of a few people I know are not able to attend. 

I just want to have this part done.  The venue.  And the damn ceremony location – meaning, decide if it’s going to be in the same place or not and if it’s not where the heck it will be since L doesn’t want a church wedding.

Then we can move on to the fun stuff.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

A mish mosh, per the usual:

- Tomorrow is a big day.  I’m running in my very first 5k on my college’s campus.  I’m really scared that I’m not going to be able to run the whole thing.  I haven’t run in almost 2 weeks and L and I went to run the course a couple weeks ago and it was really hard because of the hills.  The route I normally run is completely flat.  But I’m going to try my best and that’s all that matters.

- Then I’ve got to come home and get ready quick so I can host a Pampered Chef party.  My former roommate E has become a consultant and I’m hosting a party to help her get the ball rolling on her new endeavor.  A lot of my friends had other stuff going on, but CR and two former colleagues are coming, so I’m excited to get to see all of them.

- I’ve spent the last couple days researching different venues for OUR WEDDING!  Now that I can actually do that and not have to be secretive about it.  This is actually the one thing that I didn’t do much of in all my preliminary research – look for a place.  I had some ideas written down, but not many.  The hardest part is deciding between the Charlotte-area or somewhere on the coast.  Both have pros and cons.  I’m wanting to get this part done soon because we’re thinking about Labor Day weekend, and obviously places fill up fast.  This is so much fun!

What A Weekend

October has been one crazy month!  I know we’re getting into that part of the year that is always busy, but since when is October so busy?  Every weekend this month we have had something going on.  This weekend started off with an open house for the VFD’s new building on Saturday morning.  It was nice, but could have been more successful if people weren’t so greedy for credit and asked for help with the event.  I made lots of FD-related sugar cookies which were a hit, too!

We followed that up with a get together at a friend’s house that night.  The boys spent the evening in the living room talking shop and watching football, while the ladies hung out in the kitchen, drinking, talking and laughing.  It all ended around 11 when all of a sudden there was a parade of crying children coming down from their upstairs play cooridors.  It had been a long day for them and they all needed to go to bed.

Sunday we slept in a little, then packed up, took the puppies to the park, grabbed lunch and headed up to L’s parent’s house.  Monday was his birthday and every year he goes to the State Fair.  We got there, went to a hibachi place for dinner and just hung around the house.  Monday we took Shep to a new opthamologist (a story for another time – we have to take his eye out, but we like this doctor MUCH better than the one we’ve been going to) then headed out to the fair for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. 

We checked out the animals, checked out the exhibits, ate some yummy (but artery clogging) food and rode some rides before heading home.

A couple pictures from the fair:

My boyfriend and I at the fair

My FIANCE and I at the top of the ferris wheel!

Oh, wait.  Did I leave that part out????????  It was the best moment of my life.  After months and months of waiting (and a little brattiness in there on my part), L proposed to me at the top of the ferris wheel just before sunset.  The ferris wheel is my favorite ride, I don’t know why, it just is.  We had waited in line for awhile, even though the line was not long at all, because they were having to balance the ride or soemthing.  It was very strange how they were doing it and people were starting to get irritated.  Some people got to go on just two people (it was gondala style cars), but others were being put with different people.  When we finally got to load, L asked the guy if we were able to go by ourselves.  I just figured he was annoyed we had to wait so long for no good reason.  We got on and slowly started to go up as others got on behind us.  I was leaning back into his side, looking out at the huge fairgrounds as we got higher and higher.  He kept telling me how much he loved me and lots of other mushy things that he tells me all the time (and I love).  For a second I thought to myself, this would be such a perfect time for him to propose, too bad it won’t happen.  There have been so many times he’s started telling me those things that I thought would be the moment and it wasn’t, that I just figured this was the same.  I don’t even remember exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of, in a really cute voice, ‘are you sure you want to be with me forever?  I would reply back, yes of course.  him: are you really sure?  me: yes, I’m really sure.  him: are you really, really sure?  Me: (turning back to look at him bc most of this time I went back and forth between looking at him and looking over the fair) I’m really, really sure.

Him: Well, we’re at the very tip top.  Me: Yup. (as I turned to look back over the fair as his movement caught my attention).

He was moving on the bench, reaching into his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.  I started crying and leaned over to hug him and tell him yes.  He claims I didn’t, but I know I did.  Somewhere amongst all the crying and hugging he said he actually said ‘will you marry me?’, but I couldn’t hear it (bc of the crying).  He took the ring from the box and slipped it on my finger. 

I can’t tell you just how absolutely perfect that moment was.  I just can’t.

We finished the ride and were heading out of the fair (after we stopped to get ice cream at NC State’s Ice Cream booth – bc it is the best ice cream ever).  He told me that he was so nervous I was going to see the box in his pocket bc it had been there since we left for the vet at 9am.  My mom was extatic, but already knew since he had called my dad that morning to ask permission.  We stopped for dinner and when we got back to his parents house (who found out that morning when he asked his mom if she had a smaller ring box he could use), his mom was on the deck with the puppies who had heart-shaped balloons attached to their collars and Shep had on a bowtie and Dixie had on a veil.

Oh gosh.  I am just so excited!  It was all so perfect.  The proposal.  The ring.  Oh god, it sparkles so much I’m blinded by it!

I can’t wait for the rest of our lifetime!

Because if there is a girl out there like me reading this, I know she wants to see this…

Oh, Why Hello There

Well, hello blog world.  Are you still there?  I’ve somewhat ignored this little space of mine.  I either haven’t had much to say, or I just plain didn’t feel like writing.  How could that be since I have no job?  I don’t know.  It’s weird.  Sometimes I have trouble mustering up the motivation for things.  Like how I’ve looked at the pile of clean laundry grow larger and larger, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to fold it and put it away.  Or all the projects I have come up with to work on now that I have all this free time, yet, I just haven’t done them.  I know that I’ll eventually get a job (I will right?  Because I’m starting to worry) and I won’t have ALL this time anymore and I’ll be mad at myself for not doing it.

So what have I been doing?  Eh, not a whole lot.  I still spend a lot of time taking the puppies to the dog park.  Sometimes we’ll spend 3 hours there.  I know I could spend some of that time doing these projects I’ve come up with, but I just love taking them and watching them play.  Plus it’s so good for them to get the exercise.  We go almost every day.  Not always for three hours, but we do do that often.  It kind of depends on the weather and how many dogs are there and how much they’re playing.  Over the last two weeks though, every single day we go at least one, sometimes more, person has asked me if Shep is a puppy.  I just laugh and tell them that no, he’s not.  He’s almost two years old.  The question usually comes when he “kneels” down on his front two paws with his butt in the air, tail wagging wildly, jumping and twisting around and barking.  He’s quite a site.

We finally spoke with L’s uncle’s vet about Shep’s eye.  He says he thinks we should wait before we take his eye out.  His gut feeling is that the tumor won’t grow beyond his skull, but it might be a good idea to get an ultrasound to use as a baseline for down the road.  Also, he thinks we should have been advised to do that in the very beginning.  I’m not too happy with our opthamologist.  I think that he based a lot of his advice on the fact that we mentioned we didn’t have a lot of money to spend.  But what we met was that, we might not be able to pay for a $2500 treatment that day, but if it’s necessary, we can save our money and do it at a point in the future.  You know what I mean?  Anyway, we may go back or we may go to an opthamologist in Raleigh that works with NC State University’s Vetrinary School that was recommended by L’s uncle’s vet.

In other doggy eye news, he’s got this weird white/greenish gunk coming out of his eye.  I think it might be infected, so we’re trying to get him in this week to be looked at.  My poor puppy.

L surprised me with tickets to A Chorus Line on Saturday night.  I had mentioned that I wanted to go and then I just never bought the tickets, but he did.  It was a great show and a wonderful night together.

We’ve worked on the yard.  A lot!  We spend all day Saturday dethatching, aerating, watering, etc.  Hopefully we’ll actually be able to grow grass this year.  We’ve have a lot more wood to build the fence with and will be working on that too.  It was important to get the grass worked on so L could put seed down before it gets too cold.

Let’s see, what else?

L was at work last night and our friend had to come over when I heard a noise.  It sounded like something fell in the laundry room.  Even though the puppies didn’t budge, it still scared me.  I called L and he stayed on the phone with me while I checked the laundry room, garage and porch and found nothing.  While I was standing in the laundry room, I heard another noise that sounded like it was coming from underneath the house.  It was probably just Shep flopping down on the floor, but then I remembered we never locked the door to the crawl space the day before.  I freaked out so L had our friend come over and check it out.  And he didn’t even make fun of me.   Not to my face at least.

This same friend lives in a really nice neighborhood around the corner from us.  He and L worked together today in town and I went to lunch with them.  They stopped by his house first and L walked into the house across from him that the developer foreclosed on and told me all about it.  It sounded beautiful (plus I know how nice or friend’s house is, so I figured it had to be similar).  L took me over there after lunch and oh my God, I WANT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is a steal, too.  Still more than we could afford, but both our friend and L said that it would be worth lowballing them for a better price bc they likely just want to get it off their hands.  It would be an awesome investment too since they are selling if for about $120,000 LESS than what it’s worth.

I want it.  No, like, I REALLY want it.  L said that he wants to just throw an offer out to them.  And I hate when he says stuff like that because he never acts on it, but it gets my  hopes up.  I mean, the liklihood of them accepting what we would be able to offer is slim, but it’s still the excitement of doing it. 

The house is unfinished and our friend was suggesting to put in the offer that they could leave things out, like carpeting, etc. to help.  I would love it if we could even look into it more, but I’m trying my best not to get my hopes up, because this is the one thing that L doesn’t really come through on.  He talks a lot of talk about it, but rarely does anything.  Perhaps this is why I’m bad at window shopping in general.

But if we were across the street from our friend – it’s a whole lot closer for him when I hear a strange noise

We’ve got lots of stuff going on this October (also, how is it October already?).  L’s birthday is coming up which means a trip to his parent’s house and the state fair which I’m pretty excited about. 

We’re running two 5ks this month.  My very first.  We were only going to do one, but they just scheduled one on my college campus, so I really want to do that too.

Speaking of running, I’ve run 4 miles.  At one time.  Without stopping.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.  It takes me awhile to do it, but I’m not going for time.  I just want to do it.

I booked a hotel room for the Cooper River Bridge Run which is March 27.  They are very expensive that weekend and I’m afraid of them selling out, so I just went ahead and got one. 

I guess that’s it.  I’ll try to post a little more frequently.  As I try to get more motivation for toher stuff in life too!

Just Another Weekend With Fire and Frogs

L and I had quite a busy weekend, but a fun and productive one nonetheless.  Saturday there was a training fire for the volunteer department.  So Friday L spent the entire day hauling tons of wooden pallets to the house in town that they were going to burn and setting everything up inside. 

Several months ago a woman sold a TON of land to a developer who is going to build a mixed-use development.  This house was on that land so it was donated to the FD for training purposes.  The house itself ‘ok’ looking and the inside was pretty outdated.  But if you wanted to redo your bathroom in powder blue, there was some lovely tile for you to pull up.  But there was one decorating aspect that was most certainly not outdated.  There were tons of beautiful plantation shutters in great condition on the inside.  L told me about them so I went up there to look at them and convinced him to pull them off for me so we could take them.  Even if they didn’t fit our windows, I would find something to do with them because they were too pretty and perfect to burn.

He ended up getting some for our back and side door and those will fit perfectly.  I can’t wait to put them up!  The others he grabbed were for three windows, but are actually attached to one frame.  I can take the individual shutter off the frame and I think it will fit our living room window – I just have to remeasure the lenght.  In anycase, what a great find.

Since I’m on the Support Team now, I got to go to the burn and actually do stuff (I’ve gone in years past, but just to watch for a little while).  I went up to the station Friday night to help load up the truck that we use to haul the supplies we need.

Saturday morning came early as we had to be at the station by 7am.  On a Saturday.  Woo.  We spent the morning gettig water, etc. and attending a meeting with the instructors about the burn.  Then we headed to the house to get started. 

The support team sets up tents for a rehab station where all of the firefighters are required to report to after they come out of the house.  Here they can strip their gear, get water/gatorade and snacks to replenish and they have to have their blood pressure and pulse checked.  They’re not allowed to leave rehab until those numbers get down (or up) to a certain level.

The firefighters go in in teams and on rotations.  I believe L went in 3 different times.  The first time he came out, he looked terrible.  And he told me he felt terrible.  We later determined that the reason he felt worse than he normally does is because he was basically completely dehydrated.  He had worked really hard the day before and only had a few glasses of iced tea – so he wasn’t even caught up for that day.  Then he didn’t have anything at all before he went into the fire.  He bounced back though and was ready for more.

Things seemed to go very well and I even got to go into the house at one point when everything was out before they set another part on fire.  I’ve never been inside of a burned up house before and it was definitely interesting.  And humid!  I carefully walked through all the sludge of burned and soaked insulation trying my best not to get my pretty white sneakers dirty!

After a 30 minute break, they asked for volunteers to make runs in the basement.  Basement houses are kind of a new thing in this area (they weren’t very popular for a long time because of issues with the kind of soil we have here) so it’s not often that they get a house to burn with a basement and it gives them different kinds of training opportunities.  L was the first to raise his hand – as well as some others.  This was the last thing they were going to do before they “let the house go” and just burn down.

I watched L standing in the door of the house waiting for his team’s turn to go in.  Finally they did and a few minutes later a firefighter comes running out and strips his gear just feet outside of the house.  They normally walk away before they do that and they don’t normally run out.  One of the support team members who is also an EMT ran over to him and started pouring water on his legs.  She helped him over to rehab where I found out he had burns on his wrists and legs. 

My heart started to beat really quickly.  I realized that this guy was on L’s team, but L hadn’t come out of the house yet.  I was really worried that something had gone wrong and that L and the rest of his team were hurt or stuck or something.  Especially since they were in the basement and L has told me that that can be dangerous since the ceiling/stairs/etc. can collapse and trap them.  Soon though, I saw him exit the house and casually make his way to rehab.  He was totally fine.  Thank God.

Turns out the other guy had gotten steam burns on his legs (apparently this can happen when their gear gets so wet) – he was the first of their team to go down the stairs and had told L to back out when he was burning.  L and the rest of the guys couldn’t back out in time so this guy basically just climbed over them.  He’s been checked out and has seen the doctor and will be fine.

After that they decided to let the house go.  At this point, everyone comes out and they just let it burn.  The only thing they really do is monitor the house and the area around it to make sure nothing else catches on fire and it doesn’t spread. 

After that we packed up, headed back to the station and cleaned up some there.  I think we finally got home at around 5:30.  It was definately a long and exhausting day.  But still fun.

Some pictures from the day:

The house before they got started

L and I before the fire

Just getting started

L in rehab after his first time in

The rehab station

“Me! Me! Pick me! I want to go in the basement!”

More beautiful plantation shutters that didn’t get saved

Suited up and ready to go in again

Waiting for his team to get the signal to go downstairs

The rest of his team following him in

After everyone was out and they let it go

What was left when they were done

Sunday L had to go to work, but didn’t have to leave till 5.  We slept in for awhile and then began working on the fence some more.  We’ve almost finished one side of the fence.  We could have gotten farther along, but had to completely redig one of the holes by hand because it was some how off the line for some reason.  We also ran out of posts and rails too.  But I was happy with what  we got done.  I just can’t wait to get it done.

But the frogs.  Oh the frogs.  When I was using the post hole digger to fix one of the holes, I pulled out not one, but TWO little frogs from the hole.  I somehow managed not hurt them and just scooped them up.  I really don’t like all the creatures I’ve been encountering during this project.  Last week I found a small turtle and a large slug (GROSS!).  Yesterday, I found three more slugs.  Ugh.

I’ve also been working on cleaning up the once wooded area in the back so we can put grass seed down soon before it gets too cold.  We cleaned this up last summer but didn’t get the seed done.  I absolutely refuse to do all this work again next year.  So hopefully we can get the seed down this weekend or something.