Chaos Circle

Things have been go go go since we got back.

Sunday we drove to Tucson to get the kids, who were less than thrilled to see us.  That took up a big chunk of the day and we got a whopping two loads of laundry done and were completely exhausted.

Monday was back to work, which was just wretched trying to figure out who did what and what went where etc.  After work we went to Sprint to look at new phones because I am sick of constantly exchanging mine, and it not working.  Then we headed to IKEA because Jason bought a desk with the money his dad gave him for Christmas / Birthday and I bought some lamps for my desk because I can't stand dim light; however, the lights we bought didn't fit my desk, they only fit one side of desk (they were clamp lights) and so we had to return them.  We get to IKEA, and Jason grabbed the wrong receipt.  We toss the lights back in the car, and go get different lights and head home, crash pretty much as soon as we get there.

Tuesday night we head out to IKEA again, because light set number two also didn't work because my desk is very thick, and the clamps opened up about 1/4 inch too little, so now we have 4 lights to return.  Go us.  We head upstairs, measure the desk that I have, and went on a mission to find lights that could clamp on.  No luck.  Ended up setting on a swing arm lamp with a 12 lb base to it.  :P  The light is amazing with such a tiny bulb.  It's literally about half of my thumb and lights up my desk perfectly.  Once again IKEA, you impress me.  Our house is slowly becoming IKEAized... one day all of our furniture will probably be from there.

Wednesday we had an appointment with the stationer.  Sad to say we will not have the invitations we want, and will probably end up doing them ourselves.  Wow, it is crazy how expensive things are.  CRAZY.  Unfortunately, it took us 50 minutes to get to the stationer, 15 minute appointment, and 50 minutes back.  Again, there was not much time left to do anything once we got home, and we pretty much went straight to bed.

Thursday morning, both doing our own thing at work and Jason gets a call to remind us of our appointment tonight, and if we can change places where we were going to meet.  Uh, appointment?  What appointment?  Heh.  It was with one of the DJs that we met at the bridal show, and let me say that I am so glad he called to change, because we were really impressed with this guy and the services that he offers / provides--but we totally forgot we even made an appointment.  (Hell, we haven't even had a chance to look at briday show information yet.)  Once we get paid next week, we will be placing the down payment with him.  We really need to buckle down and get back to the wedding business though because we still haven't purchased my dress (which I have been told can take 4-6 MONTHS to get in) and we still haven't picked a photographer.

I created a gallery, since I don't have a paid Flickr account anymore, and therefore am limited, and I have uploaded all the pictures from our trip to  Oklahoma.  Still working on some of the descriptions, so bear with me a bit.  But you can check it out here: fendiandemo.com/gallery

Alsoooooooo, a co-worker of mine has planted a little seed that is slowly growing.  She told me that I should seriously think about opening up my own business selling dog treats since her dog goes nutso over them.  If everyone else hasn't been lying to me, than I know that other dogs besides mine also love them, and sometimes even prefer them over their regular treats, and I have been talking about it with Jason.  I think the inittial start up would be kind of rocky, but I think it would be a fun and beneficial hobby.  I've brainstormed a ton of ideas with Jason and he's being very supportive of the entire idea, and even offered to help, but I am wondering about other opinions out there... anyone?  Anyone!?

Where we're at...

The airport actually, on our way to Oklahoma.

Things have been so crazy since the holidays have been over.

School started, and I think I lost my mind.  I am taking 9 classes this semester, and Jason is going full time this semester (with 5) and our classes started last Monday (well all of mine did, and 3 of Jason's did.)  What the hell was I thinking?!?  A few of the classes are going to be a breeze, but I had to sit and do two weeks worth of homework Wednesday night, and what a pain in the ass!  I still have some to do by Saturday, and Jason hasn't even looked at his new classes becuase he still isn't finished with last semester.  Ugh.  Obviously it will be easier once everything calms down and we don't have a bajillion plans on the weekends, but yikes!

Also, I finally finished a knitting project!

Who wants to jump in the Way Back Machine?!

Whoops.

I put a contact form up, and it didn't really work.  So luckily, only one person sent us a message, and we were able to deduct from the information that they sent us who it was, but other than that... I got a contact form up now that actually tells us who sent the message.  :P  Also, I created us an email account that sends it to both of us, and it's easy to remember because... well, it matches the site.   fendiandemo@gmail.com (Sorry it's not linkified, but I wanted to protect us from spam.)

In other news, we sent out the first batch of save the date cards.  Most of the people on my side that we're inviting got them (or should have) but a lot of Jason's side, we either don't have the address for, or we sent it, and have the wrong address.  :P  Be sure to update us if anything is wrong as well.  We did the list with one person reading information, and one person typing it out... we've had two mistakes so far, one on a person's name, and one on a street name, so feel free to tell us, so we don't feel like a jack-ass later on.  :P  Also, welcome to the site, and thanks for taking a peek into our little journey!

As for a little update:

Tuesday was our lucky day, not only did we win $21 on scratcher tickets (that we shouldn't have purchased but it looks like that was a $5 well spent) but Jason got his job back at Desert Schools.  This is good and bad, because he hates this job, but he's making almost twice the money (which means he got a raise), and he will have twice the hours, and he's really not digging the mortuary scene.  I think one of my friends has totally destroyed his dreams from Friday on.  We're pretty twisted there, but you kind of have to be.  :P

This coming Monday we have a meeting with our potential Pastor.  He is actually my runner (for work) and used to be in radio, and has been a pastor for years.  He does church services every Sunday (threw that in there to make the parents happy ;) haha) and does funeral services as well.  He is so calm and gentle, I just love him!  He said he's done 2-3 hundred wedding ceremonies and they have all been different, so we are having coffee to discuss all of our options Monday after work.

Today, Jason and I fought moron after moron at the Bridal Fashion Debut but we got a ton of information.  We spent 5 hours there, but got there 2 hours after it started and were basically kicked out at 3 when it ended, and we definitely could have used it.  :(  Anyway, we got toooooon of flyers and cards for photographers, and DJ's a few for floral and a few for cakes, pretty much the only things that we need now.  We also picked up some invitation stuff, as we haven't yet decided whether we want to do our own or not.  We got a few free samples, but man there are some crazy people out there.  Jason literally got hit 3 times by the same dumb girl with the stroller she was pushing, and every time he glared at her, yet she never even apologized.  I swear.  I realize it is a crowded place, but if you injure someone then at least have the courtesy to say sorry.  And I know it's a bridal fair, and you should bring someone with you, but omg, you do not need to bring your whole family and children along with you.  There were so many wretched misbehaving children around, and some people brought like mothers for both sides, and their entire bridal party plus some more friends, which totally blocked some exhibits, which was super annoying.  I even saw someone with a stroller that said 'Please DO NOT touch the baby."  Well lady, if you don't want strange people touching your baby, don't take it to a place with over 4,000 people crammed into it, hello common sense, obviously that was checked at the door.  Sadly, we missed the 3 bridal fashion shows, didn't win any of the gown give-aways, and the huge sale on bridal gowns (seriously 20-80% off!) because we found it as we were being shoved out the door.  They seriously need to make that thing longer as half of the 5 hours we spent there was waiting for large masses to pass by or shoving people out of the way.  Oh well.

 

And that is it for now.  I need to work on my bridal party invitations...

A day like any other...

… except much, much worse.

The one, and generally only thing I like about my birthday being where it is, is that while everyone is worrying about their New Year’s resolutions for the first week of the year, I am sitting back, calm, and cool, because I know I can slack off, and start my «year« 9 days later than everyone because… it’s my birthday! :P The day wasn’t as bad as some I’ve had in the past, but it was pretty stressful. Usually my birthday is overlooked due to the fact of two major holidays back to back, and the hustle and bustle are not gone… Amanda’s birthday? Amanda who? That’s usually how it goes.

This morning didn’t actually start out bad. Jason is such a doll. He let me sleep in a few extra minutes, and when I woke up, he gave me my birthday stash, two new pajama pants (which, may seem like a mediocre gift, however, I loveeeeee pajamas and would live in them and go everywhere in them if I could, so I was beyond thrilled.) I also got a glowing light bulb (which is hard to explain, but it looks cool) along with my Froggie Fudgies, and an I Love My Geek shirt (because I do, and now I can tell the world!) The second we closed the front door to our safe little domain… everything just exploded into a bad day of doom.

My boss was being a (fill in mean word here, because I honestly can’t think of one that wouldn’t offend someone) and had already upset me the day before.  Jason and I gave him the courtesy of calling him to tell him we would be like 10 minutes late, and instead of just letting us be late, he insisted that we go buy donuts for everyone to «make up for it.«  That irritated me because he knows we’re short on money, and then I had room to think about it more, and not only did that make us even more late, both losing 30 minutes a piece, but the donuts, cost more than what we actually make combined for the time that we lost, so it was a bum deal.  When we walked in, of course we got, «the look« which pretty much just put tears in my eyes, and then my mom called to tell me happy birthday, which then set me off, and I had to go sit and cry in the bathroom to regain control, then everyone is asking what’s wrong, and I just wanted to crawl under my desk and go back home.  Then once everyone was thanking us for the donuts, I just got more upset, and wanted to shove them up their noses!  One of my sweet co-workers however, took it upon herself to get me a card that everyone signed, and got me a burrito from Sonic, so that lightened the mood.  I trudged through the morning grudgingly, having to do favors left and right for people I really didn’t want to do favors for, and then my boss announced he was going to take me, Jason, and the office manager out to lunch.

We ended up going to California Pizza Kitchen because one person would suggest something and someone would turn it down, and I didn’t care where we went… and that’s where we ended up.  The rest of the work day just drug on and on; I finally go to do my job at about 2:45 when I was finally allowed to get back to doing my own thing instead of everyone else’s.

Once we got home, we snuggled with the puppies for a bit, which can’t help but make anyone feel better.  We then headed to Walgreen’s to get a prescription filled, where we found 100 white lights for 99¢ so we bought 12 boxes of them because quite frankly, I’ve searched high and low on Craigslist for used items like this for our wedding, and they just don’t have much in that line, or we have to drive super far, so I’d say $12 for 1,200 lights wasn’t too bad, and if we can’t use them, it wasn’t a huge waste of money anyway.  I also figure we probably only need 10 strands, but wanted to get a few extra in case there were issues and we needed more.  We also got 2 bags of 25 bows each for 10¢ and 4 rolls of ribbon (in wedding colors of course) also for 10¢ so we really didn’t do too bad.  I stinkin’ love clearance!

Once 7:00 rolled around, we headed for Buca, where Jason had made reservations for the kitchen table.  When we got there, he begged and pleaded with them to not sing, and they didn’t (thank god, I don’t know if I could handle that on a normal day, much less today.)  This time, was so much more active than any other time we had been there.  We got a glimpse of every meal that left the kitchen, and the head chef that was there was so friendly and nice, and chatted with us for a bit, and had his staff whip up a free plate of fried mozzarella, which was soooo good.  We also tried one of their salads as an appetizer instead of our normal pizza, and that was also so good.  Seriously, Olive Garden has NOTHING on Buca di Beppo.  Nothing.  This place is so good, that if anyone ever comes to visit us, I insist that we go there and eat.  Everything is so darned delicious, and the portion sizes are humongous, I am not even kidding.  For example, we have not had them, but their meatballs are the size of a softball, not a small baseball, but like one of those huge softballs.  We usually have enough for a meal and a snack or two more meals the next day, that’s how much food you get for your buck.  After dinner, (well we were pretty much full by the time we had the salad) I got my free birthday desert of Apple Crustata, (which is like fried apples with almonds, and caramel layered on a flaky crust) which was to die for.  TO DIE FOR.  Jason was going to let me have that while he took the ice cream, but he took one bite and insisted that I share :P  Needless to say, Jason left there after loosening his belt three notches, and he made it clear that his pants were not falling off when we left.  Now we are home and absolutely miserable.

I have soooo much more to update, and it’s really important too, but we have to get up early tomorrow for the bridal fair!

Freebies

I have been trying to save up cool freebies for a while, but it seems like by the time I get whatever it was, the promotion is over, and therefore I can’t verify that it’s real until it’s too late.  :(  Anywho, I got a cool TiVo cookie cutter right before Christmas.  It’s totally cute, and I love my TiVo, so it all works, but… the promotion is over.  However, Jason and I just placed two orders for some free tea.  Basically, you go to teasta.com pick out two of their samples, put them in your cart, put TRYME in the coupon code section, and voila!  Free tea.  I cannot verify that particular freebie… but if you like coffee, Dunkin Donuts is also giving away samples of their dark roast and regular coffee, and we have received both samples that we ordered.  They are often out of stock of one or the other but keep checking back and you can usually get it.  If you want more than one, start using different names and addresses.  I’ve sent stuff to my mom and my work address because I am a freebie whore… I loooooooooooove free stuff, especially if it’s actually useful.

Other than that, not much is new.  Landon is walking around joyfully as ever.  We stopped by school tonight to pick up our books, and being that I am taking 9 classes I have a ton of books.  Some moron decided that it would be a smart thing to put the bookstore (with no elevator access to students) on the very high second floor, so I brought muscles with me.  Luckily Jason is taking the same classes that I am (for the most part, just not as many) because my books alone were $600, and they were used.  Thank goodness for book vouchers or we’d never get back to school.

I have the hiccups for the 3rd time today, so I better run and do some somersaults around the living room.  Haha.

Poor Wubba :(

We took Landon to the vet today to get his yearly vaccinations and 3 year rabies shot.  Normally it would be an in and out transaction, but it seemed like all the staff except one person was new, they had a ton of walk-ins and everything was sloooooow.  We don’t particularly like this vet because she’s kind of a flake, but the rest of the staff is (usually) super, and they are open late during the week, and they are open on Saturdays and Sundays and used to take our pet insurance (when we had it.)  Anyway, we sat around for 30 minutes, and then Landon had his temperature taken, and they tried to get us to get a whole bunch of extras, and we said no, and they took Landon back to get his shots.  That is one thing that bothers me, they always take the animals to the back, because if «they don’t see mom and dad, they don’t flip out as much.«  But, I am never really convinced that they are getting the shots… well until today.  The shots always knock the kids out, which is usually nice, and so we got home, ate, and took a short nap, everyone was happy.  Landon was lethargic the remainder of the afternoon, and most of this evening.  We fed them at about 5, and by 8:30 they hadn’t been out, so we open the door and Lucy runs out like the obnoxious wrecking ball she is, and Landon just sits and stares at us, Jason starts bawking like a chicken (which is exactly how Lucy sounds, and gets Lucy riled up and Landon remains on the floor, and just stares at us some more.  Once he finally gets up, he’s limping, and trying his damndest to not use his right hind leg, making him have one leg in the front and one leg in the back on opposite sides.  The poor thing is in so much pain, he has a quiet little whimper, and we had to hold him up to help him get outside to pee.  The poor thing.  We feel so bad for him, we know he’s in pain already with the rain, but now this.  If he’s not better in the morning, I think Jason will skip work and take him back to the vet.  He’s so pissed right now, because they could have given him the shots elsewhere so that even if it did hurt it wouldn’t impair his walking.  «How could you do that to a three-legged dog?!?« I believe were his words.  :(

In site / wedding news, I updated the Wedding Plans section, however it’s password protected.  You can email Jason or I for the password.  Also, I was thinking about making people who want to read this sign up for an account.  I’m getting kind of weary of those who are reading it from really weird places (hence the password protected plans) and places that I do know.  For the first time in my life, I am scared of who is on the internet! :P Haha.

Setting things in motion.

1. We are canceling our home phone.  According to the phone company, we only use it 100 minutes a month (which, even that much is shocking) and they are raising their rates... so if you have the 602.441.2472 phone number, go ahead and delete it.  We have the number until mid-January, but the phones aren't even hooked up, and it goes to my cell phone anyway.


2. Jason had a job interview on Wednesday.  According to him, it went well (due to the fact that a friend, and former co-worker apparently wrote all the interview questions specifically so that only Jason would know the answers) but they told him they had 47 more applicants to go through, and he wouldn't hear anything for at least two weeks, which sucks for two reasons:
   
   
   
   1. Our vacation starts in two weeks.
   
   
   2. Should he get the job, this shoves him back to not working for two months, and I am not sure if we can actually (financially) survive that.  :(  * But at least he will have a job... right? * : /
   
   
   
   


3. We finally got to meet with the caterer, and despite the original flub, we love her!  Her prices for everything (being tables, chairs, linens, tableware, food, servers and bartender, no drinks though, we have decided to provide those per her recommendations, as it will save us money) was under $4,000.  However, that does not include the DJ, cake, flowers, or photographer; she can contract those, but does not specifically "provide" those services, and such, cannot give us price quotes, pictures, descriptions, anything.


4. We booked the caterer for the 3rd of October 2009.  It was only $100 and we can change everything up until something like 10 days before the event.  Didn't seem so bad, since the people before us had the 3rd weekend in October, and they were the last slot.  However, we don't know if the venue is still available, and if it is, we still don't have the $1,000 deposit for it.  Anyone want to loan / give us a grand and a little piece of mind?  Heh.


5. We went and blew some of the gift cards we got for Christmas.  I got some much needed pants, and we got the doggies some treats.  We also got Lucy the cutest little hoodie but it didn't fit and she bit Jason so we had to return it.  :(

[caption id="attachment_284" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lucy loves her bone... so much that in 24 hours its already 2/3 gone."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_285" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Landon also loves his bone, however, his is still whole, and he likes to carry it around and thump it against things."][/caption]

Hope everyone had a safe and happy new year!
: )