Things that make me happy

Fridays

Halloween

A guy at work asking me if I was going as a "hot redhead" for halloween.

The fiance telling me he's excited about our wedding day and not just the wedding night. :)

1 month

One month from now we will have said "i do", danced our first dance and stuffed cake into each other's faces.

We will have thrown the bouquet and tossed the garter and stolen glances from across the room.

Posed for pictures, kissed babies and grandmother's and cried tears of joy.

One month from now will be the best day of our lives.

i'm stoked.

The best of times and the worst of times

The past few weeks have been a storm of emotions.

Sadness: My grandpa came home from the nursing home but has been to the hospital twice. Today i watched him poop. I'm not talking like I saw him on the toilet, i'm talking i saw his bare butt just letting go of the poop. I've never seen a human actually do that. It was one part disgusting and one part well..mostly disgusting. You've never lived until you've seen a grown man poop.

Bitter/Sweet: We moved all of my stuff from my parents house to Joe's. While it's exciting to start a new chapter of my life and i'm looking forward to starting a new life with Joe, it made me sad to think that I won't live with my family anymore. I know it's weird and i'm hardly ever there. But a piece of my heart will always be there with them. So moving my stuff was hard for me.

Stress: The clock is ticking on our wedding countdown. And the stress is multiplying. Trying to get all my ducks in order and do this wedding right is really really stressful. Good lord. Part of me wishes we eloped.

Fun: My lovely lovely bridesmaids took me to Vegas for my bachy (stealing that term from Nancy). Best. Weekend. Ever. We ate good food. Went to a couple of shows - one that included half naked men the other was the Elvis Cirque show. It was amazing. We went to a couple of clubs. We were the Woo girls. The one thing that struck me was how much these girls (even the ones that couldn't make it) love me. They all wanted to give me the party of my dreams and it really was. I am so lucky to have such great friends.



My bridal shower is Sunday. I can't believe it. My bridal shower. It seems so strange to think that in just a few short weeks i'll be married. Cra-zay.

I'll post more Vegas pics and some bridal shower pics soon. :)

Update: As my faithful maid of honor told me, my bridal shower is Saturday. Not Sunday. :)

Lose For Good Campaign

Today Weight Watchers is doing a one day only social media campaign to feed to the hungry (no not us members) actual hungry people.

They are donating a dollar just for me posting this! You can like them on facebook or follow them on twitter and they will donate a dollar for each.

Or if you simply comment on this post and include "Lose for Good" in the comment they'll donate a buck! It's seriously easy! So if you read this please, post a comment or go to twitter and facebook!

C

Breakfast of champ..well no

This may or may not have been what i had for breakfast this morning, x2.

Bahama mama

At the beginning of August Joe and I went to the Bahamas for work. Work?!? you say, yes indeed. Work. My company brought some clients out there. It was fun but also a lot of, you guessed it...work.

We did stay at a really swanky hotel called The Cove at the Atlantis Resort. Our room over looked the ocean. So beautiful!

The first night we did have some free time so we went to eat at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. The food was okay. Not the super high end that I would have expected. Or that I experienced when I ate at his restaurant Bar Americain in NY. But my steak was tasty.

The next day I spent working but Joe got to kind of hang out and did go on the famous lazy river.

That night we had a cocktail party to attend. I wore a little hot pink number that my friend Jaime helped me pick out. It looked great with my spray on tan!!The following day we went Scuba diving which was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life. I have never been a water baby. In fact I really don't like having my face underwater for extended periods of time. So this was quite a day. After having a mini panic attack in the training pool. I finally passed everything I needed to do to go out into the ocean. Once I got out there I couldn't get my ears to pop. The entire group including Joe (who was extremely hesitant to leave me) went down. One really sweet instructor held my hand and took me down real slow. I finally made it all the way down. It was awesome.

Day 3 iincluded swimming with dolphins which was by far the highlight of my trip. We got to hug and kiss them and then one pushed us across the pool with its nose.


On our last day we took a couple of photos from the balcony. You can see the beautiful pool and ocean.
We had a really nice time despite all the work and we would totally stay at the Atlantis again.

ps: my spray tan came off really early due to the salt water and sand. I looked like i had a skin problem. Not highly recommended. How does Snooky do it?

The dress

I found it! With the help of my bridesmaids and my mom I found narrowed down and purchased my wedding dress, veil and body shaping underwear (i was not about to walk out without those bad boys). I'm in so in love with this dress. I think it's perfect for our outdoor ceremony.

It's such a good feeling to have it purchased. I'd post a picture but prying eyes may look at this. And yes, I mean my fiance.

As the wedding gets closer and deadlines are looming I am feeling the stress. However, i've been throwing myself into honeymoon planning at that helps take the edge off.

Joe and I got back from the Bahamas last week and i'm finally caught up on rest. But that blog post will have to wait. We are also heading to Napa for the weekend for yummy food and wine tasting. Can't wait!

The universe

Sometimes it seems like the universe is out to poop on your head. Anybody else just have one of those months?

struggles

Joe and I have been struggling to come up with money for the wedding. It's amazing how much these things cost. Even when i think that we're being pretty frugal. We're waiting on a couple of things to come through so we can be for sure that we'll be okay money wise.
It's been incredibly stressful. I can't stand the talks we've been having of what happens if things don't work out. Do we give up the wedding? Do we nix the reception and just have a quickie wedding somewhere? It makes me so sad to even entertain those thoughts. I'm keeping my prayers going that things will work out.

My girls are planning my bach party. It's super exciting to think about!! Vegas, Vegas, Vegas! We are gonna have such a great time! I love all the girls i've asked to be my bridesmaids and I can't wait to spend time with all of them. :)

Musicals

Ever since I was in 7th grade I've loved musical theatre, it was then that my best friend at the time introduced me to it. She was well versed in the ways of auditions and backstage antics. The play was "You're a good man Charlie Brown" put on by the Sunnyvale Community Players. I didn't know anything about the play except that I wanted to be in it so bad. Mostly so I could hang out with her. I was so nervous I must have peed 5 times before it my turn to get up and sing. My heart was beating fast, I don't even remember what I sang but I remember how it felt when I didn't get in. My heart sank and my eyes filled with tears. They called a few days later and said that some kids dropped out, so I was in and a star was born..at least in my head. I'd sing at the top of my lungs into my hair brush and dance around the room.

I'm sitting here watching the Tony awards (on Tivo) with the excitement of a kid at Christmas. It's so exciting to see these people that do this for a living who have a true love of it, all together in one place celebrating it.

I think I hear my hair brush calling.

I miss having summer vacation. Long days, warm evenings, watermelon and the ice cream man. I miss running around barefoot. Feeling the freedom of riding my bike.

Most of all I miss 3 months of laziness. Of just being young with no stress. Not worrying about my job or car payments, rent. Just worrying about weather or not i could make it back to home base without being tagged.

I miss having something to look forward to every year. I think no matter what i have to look forward to during the year there will always be a place in my heart that longs for summer.

This week i've been on the hunt for a wedding photographer. There are so many out there it's hard to find the right one. All kinds of questions run through my mind. I just hope that when we do make our decision that we'll get it right.

I've ordered samples of the muslin bags for the favors. Even though Joe doesn't particularly like them. I think they will be adorable. I can't wait to do a trial run with them.

The wedding is 6 months away and I'm counting down! I can't wait to wake up next to Joe!

Proper Underwear

Today at Jazzercise I learned a special lesson:

It's super important to put on full coverage underwear while working out.

Doooood

Weddings are expensive. How do things add up so quickly? I thought that we'd have a moderately priced wedding. Yet we are now having a wedding that costs exactly what the average wedding for our area costs. What the heck?!?

Loans are fun.

Bridesmaids

I finally asked all of my bridesmaids to be in the wedding officially. I have 6 lovely ladies standing next to me! Above is a picture of 3. The two in red are wearing the dress I picked out. They are all going to look so adorable wearing it with flats.

Now Joe needs to ask the guys. Why is it that guys are so laid back about this stuff? It's amazing how guys can be so chill. I know our wedding is still a long way off but I was really excited to ask my girls. Maybe it's because we're more emotional about this kind of stuff. All I know is that if he doesn't ask them soon, i'm gonna have to start!

Your hero returns!

Since my last post I have made significant progress with the wedding. We booked our reception hall - The Freedom Hall and Gardens and we are booking the ceremony venue Hakone Gardens on Thursday.

The great thing about the Freedom Hall is that it comes with food, cake and the dj. The cake and the Dj come from outside companies so it's not like some rinky in house places.

Hakone is beautiful. It's the oldest Japanese Garden in the US. I can't wait to see in the fall. I know it will be beautiful.

It eases my mind that we found these places and actually are moving forward. It really feels real.

Now your fateful hero has other foes to conquer like the evil willie the weight monster and the icky acne villian.

A hero's work never ends.

Wedding Superhero

When we last met our hero she had just gotten engaged.

Now i'm trying to diet so I can fit in my wedding dress. Or at least fit into a dress that doesn't make me look like a sausage.

At the same time i'm trying to cut back my guest list without pissing off my mom and hurting people's feelings.

Will your hero survivor?

Tune in later this week to find out?