DIY Save the Dates

The time has finally come to reveal all my secrets about our Save the Dates! I have been looking forward to writing this particular blog because this project was my first big DIY project and I was absolutely thrilled with how they turned out!

With the help from my mom, we got all the materials to complete this project gathered pretty quickly, and I just sat down one day and assembled them. They came together really fast once the magnets were printed and cut and once we figured out how to format my cards on Publisher. I feel like what we came up with is incredibly true to the theme of our wedding and of my own personal style. This, my friends...is how it's done!

Let me just start by saying tha during the last few months, whenever I would see something I could use and it was cheap or on sale, I would buy it. This meant I have kind of a wedding hoard going on right now...lots of materials just waiting to be busted open and used. Anything I don't end up using can be returned, or handed on to another bride after this process is over. Anyway, here is a break down of the materials I bought:

Materials:

*Ivory invitation envelopes 4 3/8 in. x 5 ¾ in. Box of 100, bought at Office Depot for $10.50
*Aqua Blue cardstock, pack of 250, bought at Office Depot for $12.00
* “Bride’s” Floral Table Confetti in a bucket, bought at Michael’s for $4.99
*Elmer’s Glue-All Dual Tip Pen, bought at Michael’s for $1.99
*Pioneer Clear Photo Corners, box of 250, bought at Michael’s for $2.99
*Photo Magnets, printed and assembled at my local portrait studio for $50.00
*Postage, $22. (I used Forever Stamps.)

Instructions:

*The very first thing we did was formatted our backing card on Microsoft Publisher. We went through several different layouts, fonts and looks and ruined more than one piece of paper trying to print them correctly. In the end we went with a really cute poem my mom wrote for us:
* I cut my cardstock using my Cricut paper trimmer to 4.25 x 5.5 inches so that my cards would fit nicely in my envelopes.
* I designed my magnet design in Adobe Photoshop using one of our engagement photos. Once this was done, I saved it to my SD card and took it to the photo studio to print and assemble 50 magnets.
* I took my completed magnets and put the photo corners on them before sticking the whole thing to the cardstock. I just eyeballed the placement and then pressed down on each photo corner to ensure that it was stuck on.
* Using my Elmer’s glue pen, I carefully and painstakingly painted glue on each petal of my floral confetti, and then I placed the flowers around the words on the card. I did glue my fingers together multiple times, but despite being a pain in the butt, this part only took me like an hour.
* Lastly, I addressed my envelopes with brown and blue felt tip pens that I already owned, stuck a stamp on and put them in the mail.

(Here is a close-up of the cute poem and embellishments.)

This was the easiest project ever, and they turned out so cute. Just for those who might want to know, I am going to include the actual cost breakdown of my Save the Dates, taking into account the amount of materials I actually used.

Actual Cost:

* Envelopes - I used 50 of them: $5.49
* Cardstock – I only used about 50 sheets, counting mistakes: $2.00
(I plan on using the remainder of this cardstock for other projects i.e.: place cards and I will calculate that cost when I use some more)
* Floral Confetti – I did not come close to using the whole bucket, but for the sake of being easy, I’ll calculate the whole thing: $4.99
*Glue Pen - $1.99
*Photo Corners - $2.99
*Magnets - $50.00
*Postage - $22.00

Grand Total: $89.46…I’m going to round up to $90.00

$90.00 divided by 50 Save the Dates = $1.80 each.

Considering that these are custom, that price cannot be beat. I am extremely happy because just doing some research online, Save the Dates ordered from catalogs etc, run approximately $3.00 each. I definitely am happy with the bargains we found and the fact that my Save the Dates are 100% unique. Remember Brides: just because something is labeled in a certain way does not mean you cannot use it for other things! I used table confetti to embellish my Save the Dates for MUCH cheaper than I could have found, say, scrapbooking embellishments. Be creative!

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Since I did not feel like overloading the blog with so many entries in one day, I decided to wait until today to introduce quite possibly my new favorite dessert. I know that even thus far in my blogging, anyone who reads this will find that hard to believe, because I love all dessert. :) The bad thing about dessert in this "family" is that Josh does not like sweets (I know, he is WEIRD!)...he even HATES cake! I mean, seriously...who hates cake? That's completely un-American or something...but alas, when I make a dessert it is dangerous because he will not eat it and that means I have a whole entire dessert to myself. Not good. I try to give them away but truly, everyone always pulls that, "oh I'll take one" or "I'll take a small piece." REALLY?!? Take more!!!

Blah...even though I may get incredibly fat, I still love baking so here is my newest addition to my sweet-tooth catelog.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Ingredients:

1 pkg cream cheese, softened (you only need like 4 oz of it so half of a normal brick works)

1/2 C peanut butter

1/2 C white sugar

1 egg

1 box brownie mix (approx 19 oz, whatever kind you want)

2 T water

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 9x13 baking dish. (Glass works best)

2. In a small bowl, blend cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and one egg. Beat until smooth. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, blend together brownie mix, water, oil and eggs. Stir 50 strokes or until all brownie mix is well incorporated. It is okay to have some lumps.

4. Spread about half of the brownie batter into the greased pan. Drop peanut butter mixture by spoonfuls over the top of the brownie mix. Take the remaining brownie batter and spoon that over your mounds of peanut butter.

My peanut butter blobs :)

5. After you have spooned the remaining brownie batter over the peanut butter, take a butter knife and run it through the pan, first vertically than horizontally. This will create the pretty marbled effect you're going for:

    

Pretty!

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool completely, cut into bars and store tightly covered in the refrigerator (because of the cream cheese.) Enjoy!

The finished product!

We really liked these brownies because I followed the tips of some other bakers on allrecipes.com. The recipe I included was the one I created out of the one on the website. You can use more cream cheese, but be sure to adjust the peanut butter and the sugar accordingly otherwise, you can apparently end up with some funky tasting brownies. Other bakers reccommended using crunchy peanut butter or throwing a handful of peanuts into the mix...the great thing about this recipe is that its versatile, you can do whatever you want! And they turn out so pretty.

Orange Chicken

Well, I have not gotten much more wedding stuff accomplished since I mailed out the save the dates. I really am planning on posting instructions on how to do them once I am certain most of our guests have them...so, in the meantime: I've been cookin!

I am absolutely infatuated with the website allrecipes.com. It is the most incredible collection of recipes out there...it is so well organized and easy to use that sometimes I will go on there, type in a couple ingredients that I want to work with and it will recommend specific recipes that I can create. Other times, I get random cravings and so I'll go on, look it up and it pulls up any and all recipes for said craving. The website also provides rankings by people who have cooked it, photos of their achievements and comments on what they did (if anything) to make the recipe better. It is quite possibly my favorite site on the internet.

The other night, Josh and I were craving Chinese so I logged on to check out recipes for orange chicken. This is the one I found and it was soooooooooo good. Like seriously, Josh took one bite and said, "we are NEVER ordering Chinese food again!" So without further adieu:

Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

Part 1. Sauce: 

1 1/2 Cups water
2 T orange juice  

1/4 C lemon juice

1/3 C rice vinegar (I didn't have any, so I just used plain white vinegar and it turned out great) 

2.5 T soy sauce

1 C brown sugar

1/2 t. minced garlic

1/2 t. minced ginger (Again, didn't have it so I just left it out)

2 T chopped green onion 

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

-------------------------

3 t. cornstarch

2 T warm water

Part 2. Chicken:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

1 C all purpose flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 T olive oil

Directions:

1. Combine water, orange and lemon juices, vinegar and soy sauce in a sauce pan set over Med-High heat. Mix in brown sugar, garlic, ginger (if you're using it), onions and pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool 10-15 minutes.

2. Place chicken pieces into a Ziploc bag. When sauce mixture has cooled, pour about a cup of it into the bag with the chicken. Reserve the remaining sauce and marinate the chicken at least an hour, or up to overnight. 

3. In a new Ziploc bag, mix the flour, salt and pepper. Add marinated chicken pieces, seal and shake the bag to coat. 

4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over Med heat. Brown the chicken pieces on both sides. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the sauce.

5. Wipe excess olive oil out of the skillet and pour in the reserved sauce. Bring to a boil over Med-High heat. Mix cornstarch and water in a separate container and then add to the sauce, stirring constantly until it is dissolved. Lower heat to Med-Low, add chicken pieces and simmer 5 minutes until sauce is thick and chicken is coated.

***This recipe sounds messy, but it was super easy. We just served our orange chicken over steamed white rice and it was delicious, sweet and spicy and perfect! Try this recipe, you will not regret it!*****

Who Needs Movies?

Throughout our relationship, Josh and I have had a tradition of movie watching. Whether its going to the movie theater which I L-o-v-e...not just for the movies but for the whole experience, being addicted to our Netflix or watching some old favorites, our date nights at some point usually consist of a movie.

Since we got Charlie, we have not had the opportunity to go out to a movie...at first I was really missing it. And then I realized that I don't need a movie to entertain me, because I have the most spastic, hysterical puppy of all time right here. We shot this video of him in bed with us the other night. We were trying to get him to settle down and I moved my arm under the blankets and he started acting like an absolute maniac. I went and grabbed my camera, and we proceeded in laughing ourselves into tears about this little freak. It starts a little slow, but seriously...watch til the end...and try to ignore my hysterical, obnoxious laughter!

ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6L7GuTAKBM

Channeling Martha Stewart: Good Things

I realized the other day that through this blogging process, I have done a lot of complaining and not so much praising the wonderful things I have accomplished/dealt with during these stages of wedding planning. I know I have briefly mentioned some good experiences, but between puppy problems and incompetent people, I have definitely not spent an adequate amount of time on the good things.

Let me start with my inspiration for this blog...Heather over at Road to The Aisle. Truthfully, I have no real recollection of how I stumbled across her amazing DIY blog. If I remember correctly, my mom was Googling some things and came across it on accident. I first looked at her amazing pocket-fold invitations, and then got completely sucked in. I read her entire blog, all the way back through the archives. It was after diligently reading through her entire journey, that I decided that it would be so fun and fulfilling to have a written souvenir of this process...because it can be somewhat of a whirlwind. I am positive that once this is all over, having something to come back and read will be such a blessing.Therefore, I owe a huge thanks to Heather for being such a creative and inspiring person.

It was actually because of Heather that I decided which route to take for our wedding invites. I had always known I wanted to make them myself, because store bought versions are just so generic and truth be told, I am much too picky. We have an amazing scrapbooking store here called Archiver's and it was my intention to do my invitations through them at first....that is, until I went there and saw that a package of 20 pocket-folds, without any embellishment, inserts or envelopes, would cost me $40.00. I needed around 100 invitations so I was already looking at spending $200 on JUST the pocket-folds alone. The corresponding inserts and everything were similarly priced, so just to put the whole thing together out of store bought, ready made materials would have cost me almost $600! That breaks down to $6.00 per invite without postage, and I was just not willing to go there. Using Heather for her resourcefulness, I decided I could make MY OWN invites, from start to finish for much cheaper. This included ordering cardstock, cutting, scoring, folding and sticking for the outside pocket part. She had used a company called Anchor Paper, located in Minnesota. I figured I could find a similar company closer to me and so I tried...to no avail. I ended up back on the Anchor Paper site where the prices were incredible.

As I was browsing the Anchor Paper site, I realized that maybe I could ask them to at least cut my cardstock to the appropriate size so that all I had to do was fold it and cut the flap and the pocket. So I sent an email asking about that, and asking for a couple sample colors of cardstock to use as an accent. The owner, Tom, got back to me almost immediately. He was so nice and accommodating. He quoted me the price for the cardstock at $80 for 130 sheets, CUSTOM CUT. Remember, the comparable ready made ones would have cost $200 for only 100 of them. Needless to say, SCORE! He also said he would mail it right away, along with the Classic Linen cover weight sheets I decided to purchase for my inserts and a couple sample colors of cardstock. This entire purchase cost me $108, plus shipping. I could not believe my luck and I will always sing Tom's praises. Talk about an amazing service, price and a refreshing change of dealing with an actual person!

I am going to start making my pocketfolds here soon, my save the dates are in the mail and I am planning on starting an aisle runner project too! Yay, wedding planning! Also, Charlie dog seems to be doing much better today. Thanks to everyone for your happy thoughts!

Puppy Problems

We have officially had Charlie for a whole week now. It has been a very long week. Normal puppy obstacles alone are tiring, but since Thursday we have had a very rough time. Thanks to me being paranoid, good vet care and lots of puppy prayers, it seems now that the worst is over and I have some time to sit down and play catch up about everything going on with us, so here we go!

When Josh got home from work on Wednesday, Charlie was so excited to see him that he did not want to let him go anywhere alone. This week in Colorado, we have had some seriously cold and snowy days and Charlie REALLY hates being outside...I think it must be a combination of him being so small and the cold ground hurting his little feet. Anyway, Josh went outside to smoke a cigarette (a yucky habit of his that we are trying to break before the wedding *wink*) and Charlie wanted to go. Since Charlie hates being outside, I went to in order to hold him (uhm, yes he is the most spoiled creature ever). Everything was going great, Josh and I were just talking when all of a sudden Charlie apparently saw something he wanted. He began squirming and being out of control and took a diving leap out of my arms. Somehow, I sort of half caught him and he squirmed again and fell probably 3 feet from my hands and landed on his side on the concrete. I could hear the air being knocked out of him...and then he started screaming. Screaming is the only word I can use to describe the sound he was making, it was high pitched, terrified, hurt and HORRIBLE. I scooped him up and he kept crying so Josh took him and he relaxed. I felt SO bad, I was crying so worried about him. We felt him all over and tested his walking and everything seemed okay, but I was still worried so we called the Emergency Vet and they said it happened all the time and unless he started pooping or puking blood he would be okay. I did not sleep much that night, I kept waking up to make sure he was okay. All we could do at this point was wait and see.

On Thursday after he ate his breakfast, I noticed that Charlie really did not want to do anything. He would play for me for a few minutes but then he would just collapse on the floor, and fall asleep. I know that puppies are big sleepers but this seemed really unusal to me. I am the type of person doctors hate because I Google EVERYTHING. I know all about every disease, sickness, and symptom in the book, and often it brings little solace. Usually, I end up freaking myself out more. I was definitely on the lookout for puppy concussion. Because of his odd behavior, I was really watching him closely all day. He just seemed so tired, and he wanted to be on me. He would not sleep on the floor, the couch, his kennel, he wanted to sleep in my arms. This was also very odd. Around noon I decided he should get up and go potty and get some exercise so I put him on the floor and he would just lay down. I took him to his water and he would turn his head away from the bowl like he was going to gag. I just kept getting more and more worried. I decided to call our family vet, a sweet little old man who runs his practice like a country doctor. When I took him in, I mentioned his fall and the vet assured me nothing was wrong and his sleepyness was probably due to a little puppy cold (Charlie had a runny nose).

Basically, I had to accept the fact that the dog was fine and I was just being paranoid. Everyone was making fun of me and telling me I worried too much. I had to just laugh it off because we had just gotten a clean bill of health from the vet. However, as the night went on, I just began worrying more. He had started to become really listless and lethargic. He was crawling under our coffee table and just laying there, staring off into space. I know for a fact that when a dog is sick, or God forbid, dying they always go off on their own and try to hide. Still more worrying. He would not eat or drink. More worrying. My last straw was when he finally cuddled up to me and his nose felt super hot and he put his front paws and his nose in my hand. I noticed almost immediately that the pads on the bottom of his front feet were swollen to almost twice their size. When I put him down to see if he could walk, he was walking with his legs stiff, not bending at all and on the very tiptoes like it hurt him. Then he would plop down and start licking his feet. I could tell they were bugging him. He just looked sick. Bleary eyes, bulging tummy. hot nose, diarrhea...we called the puppy hospital at 2:00 a.m, when I could no longer take his suffering.

We loaded him up and made the short drive to the animal ER and met with the very sweet night vet there. She said he didn't have a high temperature and he was acting okay, she also said any of his symptoms were probably not from his little fall. I wanted to be absolutely sure that he was okay so they ran 3 tests: parvo, giardia and worms. Seriously, 20 minutes later the tests were back. They were so fast and professional and sweet when I was so worried. They informed us that Charlie baby had Giardia, a nasty intestinal parasite that is not uncommon with small puppies. She told us to be super glad it was not Parvo because almost all puppies lose that battle, but that we could probably solve this bug pretty easily. We were prescribed a deworming medicine and sent home. $350 later and we had a sick, sad puppy and a bottle of medicine we prayed would solve the issue.

It's been 3 days since that scary vet visit and Charlie has been improving in leaps and bounds. The medicine is really chalky and yucky and he hates it, but he is a really good boy. We found out that it really wipes him out. After he takes it, he sleeps for about 3 hours before he is even up for doing anything else. But I am happy because he has been playing more each day and he is even eating with enthusiasm today. Who knew a puppy you only had for a week could worry you so much? It's amazing how fast we fell in love. Hopefully, these hurdles will pass soon and Josh and I can pay attention to each other a little more. Haha, we have definitely experienced what happens when a couple has a child...it definitely changes everything. Although its a change, its a good thing and we are so happy and blessed to have our little Charlie bug.

Kennel Training

Oh how this little puppy has changed our lives. Josh and I had decided even after marriage, we did not want to try to have kids for awhile. Mostly because we want to be selfish and enjoy each other for a year or two. Truthfully, the biggest part of that for me is SLEEP! I am greedy with sleep, I LOVE it, if I don't get my 8 hours, you probably do not want to be around me. Well, I guess we should have applied that same logic to a puppy, huh?

Needless to say, the past 4 nights have been long...and quite wearing. Poor Josh is having to pep talk me through the whole kennel training thing. The puppy is really doing great. But he cries when we put him in his kennel at night, and it is a pathetic, horrible sound. As an animal lover to the core, his little cries hurt me! I guess now I know what people mean when they say they can't stand hearing their kids cry. (Yes I did just compare mommies with children to me and my puppy, so?)

Basically, because we live in an apartment, it is absolutely impossible to have to get up the 5 times he wants to in the night and put his leash on, walk him all the way outside and stand there in the freezing February temperatures that Colorado has blessed us with. Well, not impossible per se...but I can tell you its definitely not on my list of favorite things. At night we have a puppy pad on the tile floor of our bathroom and when he cries, that's where we take him. It's been going fine, Charlie likes it too because he's so tiny he hates going out in the cold. The only problem with this method is that once he goes potty, he has to go back into his kennel...and he just does not understand that. I feel like we are doing something wrong. Josh says its because we don't put him in his kennel during the day, so he is not used to it. Because of this theory, I am typing this while my baby Charlie SLEEPS in his kennel. Don't tell Josh this, but I think he may be right. He is acting today like the kennel is a safe place that he can relax in. He only cried a little bit and then just fell asleep.

I can almost hear the Hallelujah chorus! Up til now, he would only sleep cuddled up next to me, and so then when I would move to go do something, he would wake up and follow me. I really have not gotten anything done the past couple days. Well, besides playing with a puppy to tire him out and chasing him around to make sure he doesn't pee on the carpet (which, despite all my efforts he has done plenty of times now)

All of have to say during this ordeal is thank God for my amazing fiance, who shows great patience and love to both this new puppy and to me. And thank God for Fantastic spray and puppy pads so my entire apartment does not smell like puppy pee. Oh, and of course, thank God for bringing us little Charlie. <3 He really is such a sweet, sweet blessing despite the little hiccups we have been through so far. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Save the Dates

YAY! I just completed my first big DIY project for the wedding. Our save the dates! Since I have such an awesome connection at a portrait studio, I decided long ago that I wanted to do a save the date magnet with our photo on it. I did not want to just stick a magnet in the mail though, so I had to devise a plan for a sort of card to put it on and make it look cute. As I am sure you know, I draw a lot of ideas from my "muse," Heather at road to the aisle. She is a DIY genius and I truly want to be just like her. However, I want my wedding to still be mine, so I have taken some of her ideas and put my own spin on them. Our weddings are very different in style, and its awesome just to have a model to go off of when there are so many teeny details to think of.

I really am super thankful to my wonderful mama in all of this. She is the one with the patience to sit there on Microsoft Publisher and design the layout of the card. I absolutely LOATHE formatting documents, so thank the Lord I have her to do those ucky things for me :). I designed the actual magnet with one of our engagement photos in my beloved Photoshop. I actually have just recently become good at Photoshop, I could always use it to edit photos, but I am having so much fun learning how to create things on there...this was my first creation:

 

I wanted to incorporate our unusal wedding colors into this first project as well as all the others I have in mind. We are going with mostly chocolate brown with pops of tiffany blue and kind of a pomegranate pink. I got the inspiration for this color scheme from a piece of scrapbooking paper of all things. I am a paper freak...I could have a whole room full of paper just because. I know there are people that read this blog that will be getting one of these in the mail, so sorry to spoil the surprise. I was just so ecstatic about getting my FIRST project done! That really makes all of this seem so much more concrete and real! I will post some instructions on what I did for my save the dates just as soon as I am sure that my guests received them in the mail. (Wouldn't want to give away any more suprises!)

I am thrilled with how they turned out, and although they took a lot of patience and accuracy with teeny tiny parts and glue, (which made me want to burn them!) I am very proud of the happy little stack sitting on my table just waiting to be stuffed into envelopes. Let the addressing begin!

Wedding Photographer

People often tell me that if Josh and I can get through wedding planning without killing each other, we will have a successful marriage that feels like a breeze. I did not want to go into this journey with that attitude, but truthfully, it seems to be the case sometimes. A lot of wedding planning is very overwhelming, stressful and time consuming. When we first began, I had no idea where to even start. I ended up doing things quite out of order from what I have seen. But it worked for me and I couldn't be happier right now.

When Josh proposed to me, I was working as a manager at a horrible children's birthday party place. I knew that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life...(or another day for that matter). I stuck it out there for about another month and then got a job as a photographer at a portrait studio. Often in my past jobs, the only thing that has saved my sanity is having awesome co-workers around me. This proved, once again, to be the case at the portrait studio. There were only 4 employees there and I quickly developed friendships with each of them. I had done some photography before I began working there, but I started learning so many new things and to this day, I consider the girls I worked with there as 2 of my closest friends. As a matter of fact, the first wedding planning step I took was asking one of my co-workers to photograph my wedding.

Photographs are one of the most important aspects of any wedding, and tons of brides are very particular...I am just about as picky as you can get when it comes to pictures. Since I have worked as a photographer, I know exactly what kind of shots I would take at a wedding and I know exactly what photos I want to have of my big day. It was for that reason that I chose Marci to be my photographer. She has an amazing eye and is just starting out with her own business. I figured, I would love to further her career and I am positive she will do a great job for me. Marci is also the one who took our engagement photos and I would recommend her to anyone. If you are a Colorado bride and would like to check out her amazing work, go to:
marcijphotography.com

I am so happy with my choice of photographer and of all the things I am worried and stressed about with this wedding, I know my wedding photos are one thing I will not lose any sleep over.

Charlie

As I sit here writing this, I have on my lap one of the biggest blessings of my life. He is an 8 week old blue heeler, wirehaired terrier, dachsund mix. Yes, a mutt. But a very sweet, tiny, adorable mutt. And besides, I am a firm believer in the fact that mutts are the best kind.

About 2 months ago, Josh and I were at a local pet store just for fun. We can across a couple little blue heelers. We had been around and around about what kind of dog we could agree on when we finally got one. Josh likes dogs like huskies, german shepards and boxers. I love all those kind of dogs as well, but what I really wanted was something not girly, definitely not a purse dog (do not get me started on people who do stupid stuff like that), but something that was relatively small and would tolerate apartment life well. I liked Shiba Inus, Jack Russel Terriers (yes I know, they're hyper) and any kind of medium size mix-breed. That day in the pet store, Josh and I found some common ground: blue heelers. They are such adorable dogs, with their speckled fur and that look of pure mischief. The crazy pet store wanted a little more than $500 for a dog from a puppy mill. We definitely did not want to go that route, but we were on the lookout for a good puppy.

On Friday, my mom was sneakily putting a hold on a rescue puppy from way down south in Alamosa. He was a mutt, but looked like a mini blue heeler. I had seen him online and fell in love. As it turned out, we were the second on the list to hold this puppy. We did not think we had much of a chance but late on Friday night, my mom got a call saying that the first hold had fallen through, and if we still wanted the dog we could have him if we got to Colorado Springs by 10:45 am the next day. Everything happened so fast from there. Josh and I had to decide quickly, if we were willing to gamble a 1.5 hour long drive to go get a puppy we had never even met. We also had to decide if we could even have a puppy right now. Puppies cost money, and I am out of a job currently. That actually ended up being the determining factor: since I was not working, we figured what better time than now? I would be home with the puppy to help him get situated, potty trained, etc. Long story short, Josh and I were out the door at 8:30 am yesterday.

When we pulled up to the Petsmart in Colorado Springs, I was very nervous. I had no idea what to expect from an adoption event like this. I was also being paranoid that I would have to fight for the puppy I wanted. We walked in and were led to the back of the store, into the stock room. There, about 10 volunteers were busy putting up makeshift pens in a wide circle. We watched as they started hauling in crate after crate of puppies, kitties and lastly, large older dogs. All of this was breaking my heart. I knew somewhere in all that was my little puppy, but it was killing me to know that most of these animals would be going right back to the shelter at the end of the day. Eventually, a lady asked the crowd if anyone had a hold on a puppy. I raised my hand and told her what I was looking for. After a couple minutes of searching through the pens, she brought over a wriggling, squirmy, excited little black bundle. She handed him right to Josh and immediately the puppy started whining and licking and wagging his whole body. This puppt was a lover from the beginning. I sat down in the middle of this nasty storeroom and fell in love. So did everyone else. All the people around me were freaking out about the puppy that was ours. It was funny.

 

Turns out, everything was all down hill from there. There were TWO people who could help you fill out the necessary paperwork, take the money, screen potential adopters, etc. And let me tell you something: there were a LOT more than two people who wanted to walk out of there with a puppy. It took 3 hours for me to finally get everything situated to where we could leave. Poor Josh had to walk around the store countless times with a restless puppy, while I had to stand squished between tons of people trying to write and trying to ignore the madness around me. Truthfully, this was the most devastating experience for me. There was a whole pen of husky-shepherd puppies and they were so so so sick. They were teeny, could not have been more than 8 weeks. Unlike all the other puppies who were hopping up and down and whining for attention, these babies were just listlessly laying on the floor. I watched 4 of the 5 vomit while standing there. And not just a little bit...a lot. And when they were done they would just collapse. This was terrifying to me, because it looked like Parvo ( a flu like illness that often kills puppies) and it is HIGHLY contagious. Then, I watched a very timid pitbull cowering in the back of her pen. People are so stupid, they would walk up and kick her cage and shake it and try to get her to react. Finally, someone walked too close to her with a puppy and she lost it. It was the scariest 2 minutes of my life. Thank God she was in a cage otherwise that puppy would be dead. But sadly, her temper probably means that she will be put to sleep...all because some idiot probably abused her and dumped her off. UGH! I hate thinking about stuff like this, and here I was in the middle of it all. Probably the most heartbreaking part was watching our puppy's littermates be so confused when their brother was lifted out and handed to someone and they were left behind. I literally cried. It was the saddest thing ever. Luckily, while I was standing there, both of his siblings found families too.

Anyway, after such an ordeal in a stinky, poopy, sad place, Josh and I were so ready to take our puppy and get the hell out of there. He slept on my lap like a baby the whole way home. When we got him here, he explored around like puppies do and started showing us lots of different personality traits. We seriously went around and around for 6 hours about a name for this poor dog. When bed time came, he was still the nameless puppy. He did great his first night at home, sleeping about 4 hours at a time, and crying when he needed to go potty. We are so extremely happy that we finally have one more piece of our family. He is such a dream puppy. Josh and I got a dog together back when we were like 19...but the timing was horrible and poor Sidney had to suffer the lack of a place to go when Josh and I could not get ourselves figured out. We gave her up to a shelter and prayed that she would find a good home. We have both been plagued with guilt ever since, and we promised that no matter what happened in our lives, we would NEVER do that again. It is with a slightly heavy heart that we now have this new puppy. It makes us both think of our first baby and its sad, but now we have this new baby to take care of. We are so blessed. This morning when we woke up, we finally decided his name. So now, I introduce to you: our baby Charlie.

Banana Pudding

One of the things I had planned to do with this blog besides talk about the wedding was talk a little about the life that Josh and I have. A big part of that life together is good food. Ever since I moved out on my own, I have discovered an absolute love of all things cooking. My favorite thing to make by far is any and all kinds of dessert. I always say I am a fat kid in a skinny kid's body and I really hope that I can stay that way because I.LOVE.FOOD.

So to jumpstart the recipe section of this blog, I reached back to my southern roots and decided to try my hand at an old family favorite: banana pudding with meringue.

Banana Pudding

1 Cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 egg yolks (separate and keep the whites in a small bowl for later)

1 T flour

1 1/2 cups milk

3-4 bananas, sliced

1 box vanilla wafers

Meringue

2 egg whites (kept from earlier)

3 1/2 T sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. Line bottom of casserole dish with cookies. On top of the cookies, do a layer of bananas. Repeat layers until the dish is mostly full. 

(Here is my pretty pattern just starting)

3. In large saucepan, stir brown sugar and flour so there are no lumps. Mix in egg and egg yolks. Stir in milk while warming over Med-Low heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. (This takes a LONG time, so don't worry if it is not looking like pudding right away. I let it come to a slight boil while stirring and it thickened right up)

(My homemade pudding cooling just a little)

4. Take pudding off heat and let cool for a few minutes. Pour warm pudding over cookies and bananas. Set aside.

5. Whip egg whites on medium speed until they hold a soft peak. Sprinkle the sugar in while whipping until the egg whites til they hold a firm peak. Spread meringue on top of pudding. Use the back of a spoon to make small peaks in the meringue.

6. Bake 5-10 minutes until the meringue is golden brown. Serve pudding warm. 

(Here's the final product. Almost too pretty to eat...almost)

I was so proud of this dish. It turned out looking so pretty, and it was relatively easy. Because I was using a 9x13 pan, I decided to double the pudding and meringue part of the recipe, using the normal amount of cookies and bananas and it turned out perfect. YUM! :)

Oh, the struggles.

So, I quit my (HORRIBLE) job back in December. I was very confident in the fact that I would be able to find another pretty quickly. I guess all I need to say is it is now February 11th...and I still am unemployed. That would be struggle number one. So far, it has been kind of a blessing in a way. Josh and I have been engaged for an entire year, but because of our work schedules, we had done absolutely no wedding planning. Until now. So, I will be thankful that I am unemployed for a little bit, because in the last two months, I have sealed the deal on a lot of big things.

It all actually started back in November, when suddenly I got up the courage to walk into a bridal shop and put on some dresses. I had been traumatized about 6 months earlier when I made the HUGE mistake of going into a David's Bridal and some frumpy, disheveled sales lady asked what pant size I wore...so I told her I wore a size 7 and she said I would need a size 12 wedding dress!!!! Uhm, hello?! Does this crazy woman not realize that numbers (especially size numbers) are painful to a woman? I kinda had a minor freak out and walked out of the store. I was never going to go back into a David's Bridal again, I knew that much. I did not exactly want to hear that I somehow grew 5 sizes the second I walked into the door. Apart from that, I was completely turned off by the fact that I had to sort through racks and racks of dresses all crammed into bags and stuffed so that they all looked the same. No thank you. The more I looked through catelogs, I came up with a theory, all dresses nowadays looked the same and I was not a fan. Strapless, white, poufy. None of those things struck my fancy. So, it was a long time before I even wanted to confront the wedding gown issue again.

Well, by November I was feeling skinny and confident enough to listen to some advice from one of my mom's co-workers. I set an appointment for a consultation at The Bridal Shop in the Denver Tech Center. From the moment I walked in, it was a dream come true. It is this tiny little boutique with beautiful decor and gorgeous, unique dresses everywhere: not stuffed in bags, but displayed like art around the walls. I worked with the most amazing consultant, Andrea. She never once mentioned my size, but told me to browse around and pick out up to 10 dresses that I could try on to start. So, I did...ironically, I had pulled the same Maggie Sottero gown out of bridal magezines FIVE times so of course, I wanted to try on that gown. I picked that one and some others, all very different in style and we headed into the dressing room. She was so awesome, and decided she wanted to put me in the Maggie gown first. She is definitely smart, I walked out in that gown and my mom and I both cried. It was cheesy just like in the movies :) That is the gown I purchased. The VERY first dress I ever had on. It makes all the difference going to a place where they really care about making you happy, she was so good at her job and the shop was just so accomodating, even bringing my mom tissues. At the very end, she took my measurements and informed me that in a designer dress, not a tacky David's Bridal dress, my size would be a 4. Not a 12....a 4. Take that, David's Bridal!

The next ordeal we dealt with was trying to find a venue. Originally, we wanted a mountain wedding. I truthfully think we drove all over the entire state of Colorado and looked at every possible wedding venue. It was so annoying, so time consuming...and so damn expensive! We quickly decided that was not the route to go with. We finally decided to look a little closer to home and discovered a beautiful wedding chapel at a local university and a hotel that is gorgeous and has extremely awesome prices. We signed contracts and put down deposits on both of those places last month and let me tell you something, having a "home" for your wedding is the biggest relief in the entire world.

That brings me to my last annoyance of the night. I have dealth with some really annoying people during this process and some really awesome people, but truth be told, working in retail has so ruined me to being a customer. I want to kill some people, I swear. I have decided I am going to be very DIY with this wedding, and that means having to do tons and tons of research on basically everything. It gets a little stressful, but I love it. Anyway (sorry, I am a tangent queen tonight)...I went to Wal Mart tonight to print some photos that I am planning on making into Save the Date magnets. So, I needed to stick my SD card into a machine and press print for 8 sheets of photos. Should have taken 2 minutes. Well, someone was using the machine when I got there. So I browsed around for a bit and went back. When I got back, the Wal Mart employee was standing at the machine scanning pages of a textbook one at a time into the machine. Yes, you did read that correctly. The girl who is getting paid to help people, is standing there taking up time doing something which I am pretty sure is illegal...hmm. So, I walked up to her and it took me literally coughing to get her to look at me. I told her I just needed to print 8 sheets of photos. She gave me the blankest look I have ever seen and was like, "well...this is gonna take me awhile". She then informed me that I could use another machine and pick the photos up in about 20 minutes. So, I did just that and then asked her if they would announce it through the store or call my cell phone to let me know when the photos were ready. This time, she rolled her eyes when I interrupted her extremely important copyright infringement activity. haha! wow, really? She informed me painfully, that she could not do either of those things but just "to come back later." She could not tell me exactly how much later, just later. Hmm...needless to say I walked out of Wal Mart and I do not think I will be back for awhile.

I guess I am going to have to learn to be more patient if I am going to survive wedding planning. So far, I have already wanted to murder two people. I guess that makes me a Bridezilla?! :)

Background Info...cont'd

I thought that maybe after our "little" backstory, I should include some important blurbs about my fiance and myself. So here are some things you might need to know!

THE BRIDE: 

 

• I was born Christina Noel, but I go by Christy
• I am 23 years old. 
• I have an older brother (Tim: 26, and Meghan: 20)
• My brother is a soldier in the U.S ARMY and recently returned from his deployment to Iraq, we are very proud. :)
• My family loves a big furry white dog like a child! (His name is T.J)

•     
• I am a HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan despite the fact that I am not from there and have never been there. I will tell that story someday.
• I am absolutely addicted to Coke, and I probably will never kick that addiction.
• I still have not found my "dream job" but I do love working retail and I am a fledgling photographer.
• My Family is the MOST important thing in my life:
  
  
  My dad, sister, brother and Mama <3
  
  
  
  Meghan, Tim and I at Tim's ARMY Basic Graduation. October 2007.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE GROOM:
  
• Joshua (aka: Josh)
• Is the oldest of FIVE siblings (Nick: 20, Luke: 17, Priscilla: 11, Ally: 11 and Scarlet: 4)
  
  Here are most of Josh's siblings except Ally who is his sister from his dad's remarriage.
  
  
  Here are Josh and I with his dad, his step mom Jackie and his cute sis Ally!
• Josh is a fireplace service technician.
• Josh's family is VERY important to us as well.
• While I'm addicted to Coke, Josh is addicted to Coors original :)
  
  TOGETHER
• We have been through some CRAZY things:
• Josh hitting his hand with an axe during our first camping trip together, this required 8 stitches!
• One day while working in a local portrait studio, I peeked outside and saw a TORNADO forming. Josh just happened to be at the mall, so he came over and we survived a tornado together.
   
• My coworker snapped this photo before Josh dragged us inside.  There were NO sirens, people were still walking around the mall moments before this happened.
  
  Hope you enjoyed my little photo diary. There will be lots more to come :)
  
  
  

The Story of Us

Before I start this journey into our wedding, maybe I should provide a little insight into who "we" are. So, my first blog is going to be just that. A little of our back story.

I suppose I should begin this story in high school, where Josh and I met each other. We did not date, we were not even great friends...but we did know each other, we had classes together and we spoke almost every day. Josh had a steady girlfriend all four years of high school and let me tell you something: that couple was the envy of the entire school. She was cute and petite and blonde and he was the (extremely) attractive, athletic, (extremely) attentive boyfriend. Every girl was jealous...including me. But I did not want to be "her"...I just wanted to see him be happy. He was everything a boyfriend should be in high school: accommodating, doting, standing around bored while she chit chatted with her girlfriends, in other words: arm candy. I could tell he was unhappy, but I am not now nor have I ever been a "homewrecker" so I just accepted the fact that he was not available to me and went on with my life.

When I was in high school, I was the butterfly. Toes in every possible place they could be. I was in dance classes, I had one of the 20 positions in the advanced choir, I managed the men's lacrosse teams (all four levels), I was in a crazy amount of AP classes. Basically, at my high school, things that would make "normal" kids seem nerdy and overworked, made kids at my high school seem "cool." Hmm...well, despite all that, I had friends in every arena. Some of my friends were downright hoodlums and I began ditching classes more and more frequently. I would choose my 2 dance classes to ditch because if you missed a P.E class, you had to make it up after school in the weight room. I did this on purpose, because I knew that's where Josh would be...and where his girlfriend definitely would not be. Over the course of our Junior and Senior years, Josh and I did a lot of working out together. He would coach me on the proper ways to do certain things and we would just talk. After we graduated, I figured I would never see him again.

However, as fate would have it: one day, I was walking back to my dorm room and I saw an (extremely) attractive guy sitting all alone on the planters outside. Much to my surprise, I learned that Josh and I had chosen the same college! We were both there to become high school teachers. I saw him that day and he gave me a big hug, and I never saw him again! I was so disappointed, but life started getting a little crazy for me then so I did not really have time to process it. Right during finals week, my family started falling apart. My parents began an extremely messy divorce which involves details much too personal for blogging about right now. Basically, my mom was going from a married woman with a stable lifestyle to a single woman with only the supplemental income from her in home daycare job to support her. There was no question in my mind: I moved home, after one semester of college and began a full time job at a local shoe store. It was heartbreaking to me, not only to see my family literally falling apart at the seams, but to be at home working while all my friends were busy pursuing their dreams. Looking back now, it doesn't sound nearly as tragic as it felt, but it was hard. I was on Myspace late one night, just being sad when I noticed that I had a message.

I am sure you can guess who it was from. Turns out, Josh had moved to a different school after that day that I had seen him, he had decided to go to the same college as his girlfriend in an attempt to salvage their relationship. When he got there, he discovered she was showing some strong interest in another guy. (That's my nice way of putting what really happened FYI)...and heartbroken, Josh had moved back to our hometown. Here we both were, broken and stranded in a town working full time jobs with no clear cut future ahead of us anymore.

He invited me over to watch a movie with him that night, so I made my way into my mom's bedroom and said, "you'll NEVER guess who is talking to me!" When I told her Josh from high school, she automatically said, "The cute weight room guy?" Haha, bless her. She remembered. So I dolled myself up at 10:00 PM and made the short drive to his house. It was a Friday, and when I walked in I was introduced to his mom. She was holding the tiniest, most beautiful baby I had ever seen! Josh's baby sister Scarlet, who was only 3 months old at the time. I also met his other sister Priscilla, who REALLY wanted to watch the movie with us. She was 6. And cute. And really sassy, I fell in love with her immediately. Josh and I watched Top Gun (lol!) and he held my hand. We didn't really even talk that first night, but I had butterflies. That night was February 19th, 2006.

This is Josh and I on one of our first dates: a hike to Estes Park.

Our relationship was like a whirlwind after that. Because Josh had truthfully JUST lost his high school sweetheart, he probably should not have even opened himself up for a relationship so soon. But, he did and it caused a lot of problems early on in our time together. He still had feelings for her, she kept coming back into the picture...basically, it was a huge, immature mess. But, we were only 18/19 so I suppose pretty typical. After about TWO years of being on again and then off again just about every month or so (I am positive we drove our friends and families crazy), our situation finally came to an abrupt and seemingly final end. I had quit my job to become the full time nanny of his two little sisters when his mom needed some desperate help. I loved that time spent with them, they were some of the best moments of my life...and I also grew extremely close to the rest of Josh's family. But, that made things really uncomfortable when we weren't getting along. Josh's family did not know who to "side with"...which sounds terrible, but I had become almost like another daughter to his mom. When things ended, I had to stop watching his sisters to make things less uncomfortable for him.

The Christmas before the big break. With Josh's big family.
From Left: Josh's brother Nick, his girlfriend, Josh's brother Luke holding baby Scarlet, Josh holding me and Priscilla in front.

We lasted maybe 5 months apart from each other. It was over the summer and for some stupid reason, we kept hanging out with each other throughout that summer, despite the fact that we were not together. We were supposed to be figuring ourselves out alone but we kept running back to each other. It was a rough summer. Josh went through a phase where he just wanted to be young and single, which should have been fine, except that usually, I was there to witness it. Truthfully, we were incredibly immature and mean sometimes and we caused a lot of unnecessary damage to each other. Lets just say lots of liquor was involved that summer.

Josh and I during the "drunk summer" I'm sure you could not tell.

I truthfully do not even really remember how we came back together. At some point, I pulled away entirely and started doing my own thing and so did he. I had landed a job as a manager at a crazy place that threw birthday parties for kids. Not like Chuck e Cheese, it was aimed more towards very RICH people, so you can use your imagination. That job sucked up my entire LIFE. I worked 65+ hours a week. I know that doesn't seem possible, but there were times I literally considered sleeping at my desk so I would take advantage of the 6 hours before I had to be there again. One day, Josh stopped by my work. By this point, all my co-workers knew our story and they were seriously lined up at the windows watching our conversation. I was mad, I was hurt and I was kind of unwilling to go through that again. But so much of me was because of Josh and he just looked so.damn.good in that black T shirt he was wearing. (He had become a personal trainer).

We got back together and had a magical relationship from that point forward. We knew everything about each other, we had lived together, we had broken each other and we LOVED each other more than I ever could have imagined. Other dreams in life may not have worked out for us, but we had each other.

When we were together about 3 years total (we count the on and off times too because its too hard not to, seeing as how we were always around each other)...we started talking about what was next. I was still working way too hard and so I did not really know what was coming. On my 22nd Birthday, Josh took me to a crab legs dinner, and back to a beautiful suite in a hotel. I was shocked that I was getting spoiled so much, but did not really think much about it. He popped open a bottle of wine and walked over with two glasses on a tray with a little burgundy box open in the middle. He set the tray down on the table in front of me and got down on one knee. Before words even came out of his mouth, I was crying. I was shocked. Side note: I had made poor Josh's life difficult several times that night by not wanting to do what he had planned. So, word for word he proposed to me like this, "Even though you are a pain in the ass, I Love you so much much...will you marry me?"

Me Crying with my new ring on. Please excuse the terrible face!

Hah. Our story is completely unique and so is our proposal. We are getting married October 1, 2010. After 4.5 years of this crazy, amazing roller coaster relationship.