Wedding Picture Update

We have them! So here ya go:

• A 13 minute "recap" of the night. A highlight reel, if you will. (There is sound)
  (You do have to download a small program to run it, but I promise, it is ok. (It also doesn't like Macs, so beware Mac users))


• Wedding Pics (Professional)


• Wedding Pics (Non-Professional)


• Disposable Cameras


• Honeymoon Pics

Let's get this show on the road people!

It is currently 2:40 am (when I started this) and I cannot sleep.  Why?  Probably because I have a million and one things racing through my head.  Jason and I spent the majority of Sunday cleaning.  I must say, since the wedding has gotten closer, we have been super lazy with the upkeep of our house.  I also must say, I can’t understand how two people can createso much trash.  I went through some parts (read: not even the entire house) and filled up our almost empty trash bin.  Granted I super cleaned out our fridge but that was only two bags.  I am also amazed at how much stuff expires and you wouldn’t even know it.  Yuck.

I have started to flip out about our caterer.  She seems vaguely crazy, and controlling.  I just figured out tonight, that when she wouldn’t let me round up when I asked, she actually rounded down, and I don’t know if we are going to have enough place settings for everyone.  I spent most of yesterday flipping out about how I had 18 spots of bridal party and family to seat in 16 seats, and totally missed this one.  This also messed up our table decorations as we got enough for 6 tables of 10, and she has given us 7 tables of 8.  I also forgot to decorate the sweetheart table for Jason and me.  These are the kind of things I hate because you can’t really know until the very last minute exactly how much you need.  I’m super frustrated because we have some “definite maybe” people that we still don’t know if they are coming or not, and I hate to say this, but I hope they don’t because we will be screwed if they do.  I’m sorry, but don’t wait until we track you down almost 2 months after the RSVP date, and then tell me you may be coming, and that you’re still not sure.  I am pretty sure bridezilla will come out on October 3^rd, and she will not be pretty, and heads will fly if I see someone who is not expected to be there.  Just sayin’.

I finally got my test results back from my MRI, and that was also not good.  It wasn’t “bad” just not good.  I have a 4mm tumor on my pituitary gland.  Sure, 4mm isn’t big, but when my pituitary gland is only 9mm, it is pretty large in comparison.  Jason and I have seen my regular doctor, who couldn’t (or wouldn’t, I’m not sure) tell us much; but she referred me to a neurosurgeon to discuss options—the appointment isn’t until the 14^th of October, but it just adds to my list of worries.  She also stated that there is a likelihood of having to be rescanned and several more tests.  Not what I am looking forward to.  I do not want another MRI.  If you have never had one, they are horrible.  I felt like I was in a lighted coffin with jackhammers on top of me.  It was so close, and so noisy, I seriously felt like this device was meant to drive people to insanity.  Mine took 45 minutes, and it felt like hours or pure hell.  I left with one of the worst headaches that I have ever had.  There are a few things that bother me about this entire situation.  My insurance denied this claim.  Why?  They went through my records, and found out that I was on a specific drug that can elevate levels of prolactin.  Fine.  They did not go through my records enough to see that I hadn’t actually used this prescription in over a year.  Not fine.  They did not notify me (and my doctor) until a month later, at which point, I had already had the MRI done, and paid out of pocket for it.  Also not fine.  The original denial was just that I was on a specific drug, not which drug, so I didn’t know to stop it, for how long, anything.  Neither did my doctor, or the facility that I was going to get the MRI at.  I called them last week to see if I could get reimbursed, and they basically told me to screw myself.  I am glad this is not life threatening, because they honestly expected me to wait a month, and wait for them to tell me the drug, then schedule with my doctor, then wait for my doctor to write a note that I wasn’t on this drug (or that I had stopped it for a week) and to resubmit the referral, then wait for them to approve or deny it again, and then wait for my actual MRI to take place.  Thanks for being a quality insurance company.  No thanks.  Another scary thing was that the list of drugs was long.  Some of it included anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, stuff for bi-polar people, stuff for people with ADHD, etc.  I’m sorry, you’re an insurance company and you want people to stop taking drugs that they (sometimes) need to survive their life, and function in society as normal people for a WEEK?!  Are you kidding me?  Seriously, I’m not one for naming names, but Aetna is a JOKE.  Now, here’s the kicker.  I finally found a doctor who examines every possible angle in every situation, and I really like her.  She may have found the solution to many of my health problems, including the massive weight gain over the last 4 years… and if I drop my insurance to go to Jason’s insurance (which is beyond awesome) I will lose her.  If I take Jason’s insurance, most of my medical procedures are covered with a small fee; surgery would literally be like $75; if I stick with mine I have something like a $3,500 deductible before my insurance kicks in.  I’m sure with all of my doctors visits, blood draws, and tests I have at least half that covered, but it is still so frustrating.

I have three days of work this week, and then a week and a half of freedom from it.  I wouldn’t say freedom from work though.  Freedom from the 8-5.  This week is still going to be a ton of work I am sure.  I am going to try and see if I can maybe get Wednesday off as well to tie up some loose ends here and there.  We have people coming in starting Wednesday.  I am so excited, and so nervous because there are so many things still up in the air.  Eeek!

Lastly, on a note not about Jason and I:

If you like to eat, and you like to feel good about doing good in your community, I would like to offer you this:

Monday, September 28^th, 2009, is St. Jude’s Day at Chili’s.  One HUNDRED percent of your food and drink bill goes to St. Jude’s on this day.  Please eat, not only to fill your bellies, but to help childhood cancer research at this wonderful facility.  Just think about it.  For two people you could be making a $30-$50 donation, and you’re getting a meal out of it!  Please eat out at Chili’s today, Monday, September 28^th, 2009.  There is seriously, no easier way to donate, and you have nothing to lose, but your empty stomach!  You can read more here:  St. Jude's.

*Last year, Jason and I unknowingly went, and sadly the restaurant was empty.  We ended up racking up close to a $70 bill, all of which went to St. Jude’s.

I know, I know.

I had a looong post started about whats been going on, but as of tonight, I wish that we had eloped long ago, and told everyone a long time later.  Nothing makes me want that more than the bullshit drama that went on tonight.  (And no, actually it didn't involve Jason and me directly, it's those around us...we're still great.)

Bleh.  Maybe later, when I'm a little less pissed off.

The many adventures of Enigma Girl and Enigma Dog.

Where to start?  We sent out invitations, so far two people’s spouses didn’t know who we were, and were shocked to get invitations for a wedding of someone they didn’t know.  My personal favorite response to the invitations was:

I am still laughing about it.  :P  Thanks John.

As for me, Enigma Girl,  I went to the doctor twice this week.  The first time was to get an ultrasound (no, I’m not pregnant, thanks.) of my bladder, and kidneys, which appear to be fine.  Then I went in for a cystoscopy (fun!) which I thought I may die at.  I did survive, and nothing is wrong with my bladder.  This sucks for so many reasons.  First, I have obnoxiously high co-pays for specialists, which I have now paid three times, for absolutely nothing.  Second, there is something wrong with me, I still have to pee all the time, and sometimes I think I have to pee, and I don’t.  It’s really more miserable than it sounds.  Another medical condition, not found, and undiagnosed, and another doctor saying , “Sorry, don’t know what’s wrong with you, try again.”  On a happier note, the inside of your bladder looks pretty nifty, although the places where your kidneys drop fluid into it, are sorta creepy, if I do say so myself.  : )

As for Enigma Dog, (Jason said he takes after me) Landon, he had a punch biopsy last week, which left him with one stitch in a quarter sized hole about 1/4 inch deep, with no wound covering.  He had to be in an E collar so that he wouldn't chew it.  The vet didn't get the results until Wednesday, and didn't have a chance to review them and call us until late Thursday (we were told we'd know by Tuesday.)  Turns out Landon doesn't have cancer (yay!) However, that leads to either bug bites, or self mutilation.  Either way, we figured it was self mutilation because if he went after the bugs, he'd more than likely bite himself more than the bug, until we came to one realization: the way his tail hits the inside doggie door.  This sucks for a ton of reasons.  One, we're pretty sure that this is it.  He hasn't gone in or out a doggie door in almost a full week, he was without the E collar all day, we put them in the kitchen, gated up, with no doggy door access; tail was fine when I got home, and he had all day to chew on it if he wanted.  As soon as I opened up the laundry room door, allowing them access to the garage, his scab mysteriously went missing, and a few more in-and-outs, and his skin was torn, and bleeding.  (Albeit, his tail as a whole looks SO much better.)  We can either get a new, larger doggie door (which stinks because we just forked out $600 for these two to be installed) or figure out some way to rig this one so that it doesn't scrape his tail.  This also obviously is a pain in the ass financially because of how much money we have spent trying to figure this out, as well as putting this poor dog through a myriad of painful tests and procedures.  Ugh.  We are such bad parents.  : (  This is like letting your child stick it's finger in a socket and not being able to figure out why he's smoking and his hair is all crazy.  His stitch gets taken out tomorrow.  I guess we could ask the vet for suggestions as well.

[caption id="attachment_434" align="aligncenter" width="255" caption="Pre-biopsy and stitches :("][/caption]

Hard Times.

Marriage counseling went well. We figured out our one major problem, and now we just have to work on it. We look forward to doing more of it, but now we are kind of crunched for time as our reverend will be out of the country for most of August, and he doesn’t want to necessarily take care of this in September, as he thinks we will be bogged down with last minute things. (And he is probably right.) Why are you doing this, you ask? Because, well, we actually discussed it before it became an option, because honestly what could it hurt. Then we discovered there are actually two different kind of marriage licenses. The difference is this:

The main difference between a contract and a covenant is the enduring commitment between two people, while a contract is based on convenience.

“A contract is convenient as long as the agreement is lived by. A contract in a marriage is nothing more than a non-binding contract between two people sustained only by emotional feelings. It is easily terminated through a no-fault divorce. When things and feelings turn sour, it takes the easy way out rather than working through the problem,” he explained.

“But that’s not what the Bible tells us our relationships should be based on. Our relationships are to be based on a covenant. It is based on an oath spoken between two parties and a covenant is a blood-bond for life. It says no matter what happens, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, that nobody leaves this relationship. A covenant marriage says ‘I’m yours by covenant, you’re mine by covenant, and that means that neither one of us is going anywhere.”

Who’da thunk marriage was supposed to last forever? Hrm. Anyway, we have to go through marriage counseling in order to obtain a covenant marriage license, and we have to have an affidavit signed by our “representative” stating that we have gone through the counseling, and that we understand the ”rules” if you will. So there you have it.

In bad news; Landon had two scabs on his tail on Memorial Day. We waited a few days, and when they didn’t get better, we took him to the vet. Originally thinking it was a bite; she shaved the area, and found another lesion on him. She sent us home with antibiotics, and a wash that we had to do twice a day. After 9 days, we went back, and the problem was not better (just the swelling was down) and now the 3 had grown to 4 lesions. Her first thought was either Valley Fever or Cancer. Both of which would possibly lead to amputation should the infection be bad enough. We got the Valley Fever test done on Saturday, along with a Blood Panel. Monday, we hear back that it is not Valley Fever, but no word on the rest of the stuff. Today, Jason hears back that everything checked out normal. Next step: Punch Biopsy. This is where they will basically knock him out, and take a punch of tissue out and go from there. She is not certain what to tell us, except that it is probably something in the bones since the lesions line up with the vertebrae in his tail. I hate this, it is so heartbreaking. He has been through so much, and I feel like we have let him down. :( We also took Lucy with us the second time we went so that she didn’t think we were neglecting her, and she FLIPPED out when they took him to take his blood. Like howling and whining flipping out, looking at us like, “What are you doing!?! Why are you letting this happen to him!?” She loves him so much… I think she’d die of a broken heart if anything happened to him. :( So sad. I can barely stand to talk about it.

A picture says a thousand words

Except in this case, not really.  I'm just lazy, so here, have some pictures:

Invitation Madness

All Done

 

I wish I had a job at Food Network. Look at that presentation!

Memorial Day Corn. Why yes, yes it was delicious.

 

That's all.  Goodnight.

 

P.S.

We finally registered!  Go us.

• Target (If you go into the store, make sure you choose Club Wed, we had a registry with them when we first moved into the townhouse, which was a looooong time ago, and it won't let me delete it.  It will automatically default to that list if you don't choose Club Wed.  :( Boo)


• Bed, Bath & Beyond

I guess I could give these their own tab, eh?  Also, I think it's funny that someone bought us shower curtain rings... and we haven't even given this list out yet... I wonder if it is a mistake?  :P

And, I think I'll type up a breif trasncript of the dog whisperer thing, for Lucy and Landon too, I remember a lot of Lucy's and some of it is kinda hard to hear.   I know you're as excited as I am.  :)

The Happs

Ok, so I will be writing this in between homework assignments and random flitting around. (Because that is what I do... I flit.)

So I shall start off with an amazing story: Jason constantly teases me about how creepy I am because I "stalk" people online.  I don't see it as stalking as most people have their information on there, put there by themselves for other people to read... I mean there are some specific cases where I may be seen as creepy... but meh, we're not talking about that right now. Anyway, when I was a wee one, I had this best friend named Sharifah, we hung out, and did little kid things like play with Barbies, play on the swings, run around like maniacs, you know, that kind of stuff. Well, she moved away when I was in first or second grade, back to Kuwait. I was heartbroken. She wrote me letters, well letters as far as little kids can be concerned, and we kept in contact for what was probably a short while and then the letters stopped. I didn't really know what happened to her after that point. I never heard from her again. To this day, a good nineteen to twenty years later, I wondered about her.   I looked for her online, on MySpace, on Facebook, and just google-ing her name to no avail. Disappointing to a pro like me.  Anyway... SHE FOUND ME!  After such a long time, I was so amazed that she even remembered who I was, especially since she is still living in a country so far away from her life back then.  It was great to know that she was not only still alive, but that she missed me as much as I missed her.  I love hearing from her, and although her English isn't perfect, it’s pretty good, so I can understand all of what she says to me.  She got married, and has a 3 year old daughter, and she looks completely different, but I think this has been the one friend reunion that I have been looking forward to all my life! (Almost literally!)  Ah, I love the powers that the internet has to bring people together, who have been lost from each other no matter how long.  

Next up:  Tax Money!
Tax money is quite a confusing and exciting topic.  First off, we got a lot of it!  So much, that we have spent most of it!  We love it!  Money, money, money!  What sucked for me was that when we bought the house, they told us to lower the percentages taken out of our paychecks because of the interest write off.  So we did, well, they forgot to tell us, that only ONE of us should do that since we can't file jointly.  Since Jason had more deductions, it was more beneficial for him to take the home credit, which left me owing the government (state) $57.  Not bad really... except I haven't paid it yet.  Today I get a notice from the Arizona Department of Revenue.  Thinking they are mad because I was supposed to have mailed them money by some unknown deadline, I started flipping out, only to find a nice $420 check saying I had overpaid.  Overpaid what, I am not sure, since I haven't paid anything, but a nice little reward nonetheless.  I'm not going to do anything with it until Monday when I can call them, and find out what the heck is going on, because while the extra money may be lovely now, when I don't have it, and have to pay it back, it will not be so lovely.  As for the rest of the money, we paid off ALL our high-interest loans / credit cards, and our "big" debt is now the house, and car.  The only outstanding credit card we have is my David's Bridal card, which is soon to be paid off anyway.  It is so nice to be free.  We also got caught up on our house payments since we had fallen a smidge behind with Jason pretty much being jobless for two months.  The remainder of the money went towards some down payments for wedding stuff, invitations, doggie doors, and hopefully replacing our fence.  Unfortunately, we didn't really think enough when we first got the money, and didn't allot the practically half we would need for a block fence, so we are getting some estimates on new wooden fencing instead.  Disappointing, but new wood fencing will hold up better than what we have now.  

Wedding Stuff
I still don't have my dress, and although David's Bridal is an "on the rack" store allowing you  to walk out of there with the dress you want that day, I have had to order mine.  And then another one... and then ANOTHER one.  I am sure glad I did this early.  My third order will hopefully be the last and that is just because my hips and chest don't match classic measurements.  (Heh, imagine that.)  Luckily, the order time they have given me so far has been about 2 months too long, and the dress comes in about two to three weeks after it is ordered.

A few weeks ago, we met with a photographer, and liked her from the moment we met.  She is an odd-one, oddly similar to Jason, so of course they hit it off right away.  She also seems very meticulous, and anal about her work, which I think is a good... even a great thing.  She also does PhotoShop (Hurrah!)  And uses a Canon (super hurrah!)  You can check out her work at JenniferWeems.com

We ordered our invitations, and letting a very limited number of people see them (2) they were proofed, and perfected, and should be in my little hands on Monday.  Our RSVP date isn’t until August, but I want to send them now, I don't want to wait for June!  I'm sure we will have to assemble them though, which will put a halt to my over-zealousness.  We are also waiting on a few more addresses from people.

As for the rest of our life:
Jason is back to normal.  Being his annoying (yet loveable) self again.  He has been told to stay off the salt, soda, and red meat for 6 weeks, and then he gets to pee in a bucket for 24 hours, and then they will see where his kidney stones are coming from.  He has been a trooper so far, but I will admit, I am taking pleasure in all the steak and burgers that I get to eat in front of him while he gets stuck with chicken or fish.  He has eaten the greasiest, unhealthy, delicious foods in front of me when I have been on diets, and now, I finally get my bittersweet revenge.  When I asked him if he would change the next time, now that he is on the receiving end of it, he still said, “no.”  Can’t win them all.

Speaking of chicken, Monday I made some chicken wraps, Tuesday (like right when Tuesday hit at midnight) I woke up sick as a dog.  I am pretty sure that I got salmonella (again) which is odd because the other two times I’ve had it have been right around this time of year.  So I ended up staying home Tuesday.  I went back to work Wednesday, and felt miserable most of the day, and was mediocre by Thursday and ok by Friday.  I have been having some trouble with my hearing though, and I have been super sensitive to smells lately (which sucks working at a mortuary.)  I hate being sick so much.  It was really cute though, I got up because I knew something wasn’t right, and was sitting in the computer room so that I didn’t wake Jason up.  Well, Lucy heard me puking into the trashcan and tried to wake Jason up.  When nudging and licking him didn’t work, she actually bit him to wake him up.  She didn’t leave my side the entire day Tuesday, and she was a bit protective on Wednesday.  My puppy loves me. ♥ 

As for school a few weeks ago Jason and I both knocked out a few of our classes with finals, so the schedule got cut in half, which is nice school wise, but life wise, I swear our schedule just got worse.  I am so looking forward to being done before mid-April.  Unfortunately Jason started the majority of his classes after I did, so he ends closer to (and maybe even in) May.  Sometime in April we hope to take a much needed camping trip.  We have tons of new gear from Christmas, and we got some cooking stuff as well as a portable toilet, and some water canisters to take with us so that we can camp in more remote areas shall we ever run into a holiday weekend again.  Jason says that he is pretty sure we got everything on our camping “needs” list, but I am sure we will find something once we are out there.

This weekend we got our doggie doors installed.  We had to get two, one through the laundry room to the garage, and one from the garage to outside, or we’d have to go through a wall.  We figured their new-found freedom to come, go, and bark as they please would be an incentive for the dogs, but they just don’t get it.  Well, Landon kind of does, but Lucy, the wimp is scared of the flaps, and basically has to be shoved out, or have the door opened for her.  I hope they get it soon.  We got these so there would be less work involved… not more.

I hope to keep on top of the updates once again… but you know how it gets you get behind, and then you mean to catch up and then when you try to more stuff gets piled on… but I think I have really caught up to where we are at at this very moment… so hopefully you will be hearing from me soon!  : )

We're in the money!

We've been spending fools this weekend, because I finally got my school money.  We got caught up on all of our past due bills and even paid one off completely.  Jason also purchased parts for his computer (which he is in dire need of) we got some organizational things, and we got to Costco to get our massive amounts of stuff.  We also renewed our vehicles, and both put in for personalized plates.  We don't know if we get them until we actually get them in the mail 4-6 weeks down the road... but be watching out for us!

Wahoo!  We're so excited.

In other news, all of my bridal party has accepted their invitations to watch me gracefully turn into bridezilla, and I have picked out and ordered my gown.  It's soooo pretty.  Jason went with me to go look at them, and he liked it too.  (Blah blah blah, we already got yelled at enough at the store because he was there... but he is the only one who will tell me if I look bad, if I actually do!)  We also picked our DJ (did I mention that before?)  So now we have cake, flowers, and invitations, and then I think we are done.  Oh yeah, and registries also.  It's crazy how many people have asked us when we are going to get one up.  We still have 8 months to go!  Yikes!  :P  We will get one soon.  We both love going through stores and zapping things ;).

This afternoon, after I worked Jason like a horse to get our garage organized and clean, we headed off to a movie.  It is crazy how expensive they are.  For the two of us, at a matinee, with a small popcorn and a medium drink we spent almost the full $25 gift card my mom gave us for Christmas... we have a whopping 50¢ left over.   Anyway, we saw Taken, which was surprisingly good, and suspenseful.  I love me some Liam Neeson (and his accent!)

Anyway, I tried to jam a whole bunch of information in here because I haven't updated in like, a week or more... but I need to go to bed!  More later.

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!?

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!

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!
: )

The blow off.

Tonight we got the brush off from the event planner.   I am hoping that because our appointment was scheduled for today at 6:30 it was merly just "lost" in the hustle and bustle of the holiday.  However, I am still bitter at the fact that we inhaled our dinner, rushed the kids when we got home, and had to stand in the cold for 15 minutes for nothing tonight.  (Lucky for me, I got a new coat last night or I would have been screwed!)  It also astonishes me as this specific company came highly recommended, has won many awards, and signs their emails with, "The Bitterness of Poor Quality remains long after the Sweetness of Low Price is forgotten."  Heh.  It halfway irritates me the most because until we decide if we can afford these people, we can't set the date for the other place... although we can't really do that either right now with the lack of funds.  I just wish we could get everything lined up already.  Ugh.   On the happier side though, one of my co-workers gave me tickets to the Arizona Bridal Show in January.  They give away a ton of stuff, so I am hoping we win a free honeymoon (since we don't have one in the works) or a free gown or something.  :P Wish wish wish.

Other than that, all I have to leave you with, is a love-onion, and holiday wishes because I probably won't be updating this for a few days.  :)

Wednesdays are designated wedding planning days.

So we have a lot of information.

This "morning" started at a bright and early noon-time.  We headed off to the post office to ship some of the "larger" presents or "completed" presents that are going to Oklahoma, and spent an obscene amount of money doing so.  Did you know they charge you for packing peanuts, and don't tell you?  Yeah, we thought that was nice.   The rest of the day was spent traveling around a surprisingly small radius of Mesa, and not getting a ton done.  We had to go back home at the beginning of the trip because I forgot to put my engagement ring on when I woke up this morning (since I have to take it off at night to put medication on my hands) and Jason refused to do anything after the post office until that problem was fixed.  After that, we headed to Bookman's because I was looking for  a DIY wedding book, as one of the places we wanted to look at basically let you do everything for your own wedding, which made me happy.  (And this has both pro's and con's and I fear I may be turning into Bridezilla, but I just have not liked most of the things that I have seen, and I want it to be perfect.  :(  Sadface.)  Anyway, we ended up finally finding a copy of Wedding Planning For Dummies, which seems to be chock full of DIY ideas and tips / tricks, and The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weddings, which we skimmed through, and wow, it really is a survival guide, it has everything from the cake dropping, to someone objecting to your marriage to the wedding dress getting lost, and you not knowing how to dance!  I am seriously thinking of putting this in a glass case in a central location with an axe next to it on our wedding day,  so that should either side have an issue, they know where to go!  After that, we went to Hobby Lobby, where we spent a decent amount of time becuase the store is obnoxiously huge.  However, much to our benefit, they were having a huge sale!  I know we shouldn't be buying things, but sometimes it's just so hard, we are so used to living comfortably (not rich, but if we see something small that we want it's usually no issue to get it, and it's impossible to break that habit.)  We actually went there with a purpose: to find silk flowers.  But, since we have been to three places I think we may have to special order them.  However, we did end up picking up Jason a cute penguin etched glass ornament for $1, some purple glass candle holders for the wedding for 50¢ each (we probably should have picked out more) and some cute wooden picture frames for the kids (2 dog ones and 2 cat ones $1 each.)  Then we headed over to Joann's to continue our quest for silk flowers, and paper goods (because we want to make our own invitations too but can't find the right stuff for that either) with no luck, and headed home for a short break.

Skipping around, Tuesday night we went to an open house for The Palms on Southern.  It was cold, and rainy, but we went anyway hoping they were open.  They were literally 5 minutes away from us, it's actually further to go to the grocery store we shop at.  They were decently priced,  and had the 3rd open, so here are some pictures:

We got a lot of information from this place as well.  They even convinced these cheap technology-geeks that we did in fact need a DJ and we can't host our own wedding with an MP3 player, and we got a ton of resources from them with business cards and brochures for everything from cakes to DJs to photography.

Back to today:
After our romp around town, we went to another open house.  This one was for Chapel on the Farm.  The set-up is very basic and simplistic.  I fell in love with it online, and could barely wait for their open house today.  Everything was so quaint and cute.  This is the place that is pretty low on the price scale because they pretty much offer just the building for getting ready, and the reception site, which was fine with me (so far, we haven't investigated the cost for the rest of the stuff we need.)  I fell even more in love with it when we got there.  It has a ton of history that I will spare you, for now... Here are the pictures:

After that, we headed home, where I made Crab Puffs for dinner, with artichoke... and here we are... :)

I'll leave you with even more pictures, a little more in the Christmas spirit: