Partying like it's 1999

This past weekend Kristian and I made the 4 hour trek down 95 South to ECU for my sororities 50th Anniversary. I was a 19 year old sophomore during the 40th Anniversary celebration 10 years ago but I have to say that some things never change. Even though I hadn't been back down to visit in about 5 years it felt as if I had never left.

We got into town Friday night and as soon as we dropped our bags in the room we headed to the hotel bar for a drink. In fact I never even had the chance to change my clothes or refresh. What can I say? It had been a LONG week. Eventually my friends Spanky, Grickis and Melissa (her nickname is not blog appropriate) met up with us along with their husbands. After some more drinks we headed to a Mexican restaurant for food and even more drinks then downtown to the bar where we all spent many a nights back in college. It was there that we met up with most of the other alumnae that were already in town. It was so much fun hanging out in our old bar, with all my sisters, dancing and taking inappropriate pictures. Just like the good ol days. And having Kristian with me was definitely the icing on the cake. He was able to channel his inner frat boy and consume an abundant amount of beer, margaritas and shots. The next morning was a tad rough.

Saturday we met up with my bridesmaid/sorority sister Kelli and my sorority little sister for lunch. Then headed to the bookstore to stock up on some new Pirate gear. Finally it was nap time prior to Round 2 of Shenanigans at the formal. We headed next door to the Hilton for dinner, drinks and dancing. I was able to see girls that I haven't seen in YEARS! I received many congratulations on the engagement, compliments on the ring (which always makes Kristian happy) and questions about the wedding. Oh and my killer new pink heels were a huge hit. I lost count of all the compliments I got on them, including from girls I didn't even know in the bathroom. It made all the pain my feet were in at the end of the night totally worth it. Who cares about blisters when you have cute shoes?

It was so much fun getting to see my college friends and reminisce about the old days. And I was so excited for Kristian to have the chance to meet the girls I spent some of the best years of my life with and vice versa. I feel like he knows me even better now having seen a glimpse into my past.

And now the fun stuff....pictures!

( Starting the weekend off right)

(Melissa, Spanky, Me and Grickis in our favorite college bar)

(We're gonna have cute kids)

(I promise I'm not as drunk as I look)

(Reunited and it feels so good)

(We clean up well....check out my hot shoes)

(Like a fine wine we only get better with age)

(How cute are we?)

(Yes that's Kristian in the background and no Jennie and Grickis weren't his only victims of picture sabotage)

(Alumnae from 1996-1999)

I can't wait to see everyone at the 60th Anniversary!

Well Hello my pretty

First I have to say that work has been kicking my sweet ass for the past week. One of my coworkers is out on vacation for TWO WEEKS and I get the glorious task of handling all of her work on top of all of my work. Basically every morning I get into the office, open my emails and try not to cry from being so overwhelmed. You would think being so busy would make the days go by faster...notsomuch. I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Thursday because I had done enough work already to make it seem like it should be Thursday. Sigh.

Anyways onto things that make me happy...like shoes. Like pretty new shoes which I purchased last night. I am going out of town this weekend for a sorority reunion of sorts which meant I needed to buy a new LBD (little black dress) and of course you can't buy a new dress without buying new shoes. I decided to be all adventurous and purchase some lovely fuschia heels. The best part about these shoes (besides the price tag) is that I can wear them with my LWD (little white dress) that I bought for the rehersal dinner.

Aren't they purty?

They are Michael by Michael Shannon which I found at Off Broadway Shoes for about 50% off. I couldn't resist especially since my brother's name is Michael and my name is Shannon. Can it get any cuter than that?!

Agree/Disagree/Unsure

**Yesterday marked our 3 month point until the wedding. We are now in our last trimester of this wedding planning shiz!!

I mentioned last week that we were meeting with our pastor to start the pre-marital counseling this past weekend. Well our first meeting went quite well. I've met Pastor Steve briefly in the past but this was my first chance to really sit down and talk to him as well as Kristian's first chance to meet him altogether. I know Kristian was very apprehensive about the whole thing but fortunately he seemed to really hit if off with Pastor Steve and I think he's more onboard with using him for the wedding. Steve is on the younger side (39) and pretty laidback which we both like.

When we first got there we told Steve a bit about how we met, how long we've been together etc. He then told us about the test and how he uses that as a guide to lead our sessions. He said that it's not a pass/fail but they do prefer for couples to score at least 60% compatibility in each section. He said only one couple scored less than that, about 25% in each section which was really bad considering they already had a child together! He said they never came back.

The test consisted of around 170 questions that we had to answer on a Scan Tron...holy flashbacks to college! We had to answer each question with either Agree, Disagree or Unsure. We were allowed to sit at the table together to take the test and we didn't talk however there were several questions that we both found ourselves snickering on.

The questions are all worded in different ways so that you really need to read them correctly or you may end up agreeing to something you didn't mean to. Several examples of the questions were (I'm paraphrasing):

-My future spouse and I have agreed on when to start having kids
-I get along with my future spouses family
-I am uncomfortable with the amount of alcohol my future spouse consumes
-I feel infidelity is a valid cause for divorce
-My future spouse and I have discussed how will manage our finances

And my favorites-
-I am unhappy with the amount of television my future spouse watches ---this made me laugh b/c I totally watch too much tv!
-I feel that my future spouse could cause me physical harm ---ummm I wouldn't marry him if I felt that way!
-I am uncomfortable with my future spouse's homosexual tendencies ----BWAHAHAHA, I lied to Kristian and told him I agreed on that question :)

Overall I felt the test was pretty interesting though I don't think it can really determine your compatibility unless it shows that you and your fiance have just never had a conversation before. We will get the results back in about 2 weeks and based on that he'll determine what areas we should focus on. He also will be emailing me materials to look over to help come up with the ceremony and how we want that performed.

When we were leaving we passed my mom's desk (she's the office manager for the church) and were laughing about how clean and organized it is... my mom is a bit OCD...so we decided to subtly move a few items around to see if she would notice. So far she hasn't mentioned anything :)

Mouthgasm

This past Friday we left work early to do our tasting with our caterer and decide on our menu, linens and china. I have to tell you this was easily one of the most fun wedding planning activities.

We were able to pick out 1 salad, 3 entrees and 3 sides to try from their extensive menu. We were given very large portions of everything, easily enough for 3 or 4 people. Kristian asked our catering coordinator if people typically ate everything or if they would just take a few bites of each item to try. Basically we wanted to know if we were the only pigs who planned on eating EVERYTHING :)

Everything we tried was delish! Not only did it taste fantastic but their presentation was great. We decided to go with a buffet over a sit down dinner so that everyone would have the ability to choose what they want and try more than one entree. With our buffet option we were suppose to get 2 salads, 2 entrees and 2 sides but we were able to swap out one of the salads and get an extra entree instead which will give us some more variety. We also decided on the hors d'oeuvres for the cocktail hour.

For the cocktail hour we decided on:
FRESH FRUIT DISPLAY
A seasonal display of such favorites as
cantaloupe, honeydew,mango, papaya,
pineapple, red & green grapes, seasonal berries,
star-fruit, coconut, dried fruit and kiwi elegantly
displayed and decorated

GOURMET CRUDITÉ DISPLAY
Julienned cut carrots, celery sticks, red, orange
and yellow peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and
squash presented in square glass cubes
accompanied by grape tomatoes, olives,
asparagus and Chinese long beans. Set atop glass
blocks accented with wheat grass. Served with
roasted red pepper dip

HOT CRAB & ARTICHOKE DIP
Lump crab, artichokes and seasonings blended in
a creamy cheese dip and baked until bubbling.
Served with garlic toasted pita angles

For the buffet we chose:
Salad-
PEAR & WALNUT SALAD WITH
GORGONZOLA
Field greens tossed with sweet pears, toasted
walnuts, gorgonzola cheese and our cranberry
citrus vinaigrette

Entrees-
BEEF MEDALLIONS WITH SHALLOT – **This was our favorite! Kristian ate the whole thing
BRANDY SAUCE
Tender beef medallions presented atop a bed of
caramelized onions, tomatoes and arugula.
Drizzled with a delicious shallot –brandy sauce

PECAN CRUSTED CHICKEN
Tender breast of chicken rolled in spicy pecans,
and then drizzled with a light cream sauce

ORECCHIETTE PASTA WITH - **This was our second favorite.
SCALLOPS & SHRIMP
Open faced seashell pasta tossed with jumbo sea
scallops and shrimp in a creamy lobster based sauce

Sides-
Green Beans with Caramelized Onions &
Toasted Almonds

Parmesan Smashed Potatoes -**These were amazing!

We also tried their mac n cheese which was really good but we didn't think it would work as well with the other dishes. Fortunately we really don't have any vegetarians to worry about. One of my bridesmaids is a pseudo vegetarian that eats seafood, so she'll be all set with the pasta. Our guests definitely won't go hungry!

We then picked out our linens. Since our colors are black, white and dark pink/fuschia we decided to go with a textured black linen, white platinum trimmed china and white napkins. I think this will help make our pink flower centerpieces and white candles really pop. Below is a picture of the linens we decided on.

We've also decided to provide the alcohol which should save us a good bit of money, especially if we buy everything from a place that allows you to return any unopened bottles. The caterer very kindly provided us with a breakdown of how much alcohol we would need based on our guest count. We've decided to go with beer, wine, champagne (for the toast) and one signature cocktail, which will be Sweet Tea Vodka and Lemonade (my fav!).

Finally, we went over the timeline from when the caterer will arrive until cleanup. It was nice going over everything with the caterer who has far more experience with how long it takes for everything than I do. I was starting to worry we wouldn't have a lot of time for dancing after dinner but it seems like we should have more than enough time to take advantage of the dance floor.

Friday's tasting turned out to be a very productive meeting and made me feel a lot less stressed out about how everything will run on the day of. I think our guests will have a fabulous time!

Wax on Wax off

I have to admit something. I don't wax. Not my eyebrows. Not my legs. Not my lady bits. Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of unnecessary hair and I take care of my business, I just do it via razors and tweezers. I've waxed my eyebrows in the past...I think the last time was for my senior prom. I don't wax my eyebrows for many reasons-

1. I don't like pain
2. It's another expense I don't want
3. I can't stand letting my eyebrows grow out enough to get them waxed

With all that said when I thought ahead to the wedding I figured I would probably need to bite the bullet and get my eyebrows waxed so that they could be professionally shaped. Since I haven't done this in ages I decided to experiment now and make sure I liked the results.

So for the past two weeks I've tortuously been growing out my eyebrows. It hasn't been pretty as the picture below will attest to. Last night I went to a nail salon and spa close to my house and 10 minutes and $10 laters I had nice, clean pretty brows. See below for the before (scary) and after pictures.

(Not my best look)

(BIG improvement)

I'm very happy with the results. So my plan is to continue to tweeze between now and May and try to keep the shape as best as I can but then before the wedding go back and get them waxed again. Kristian wants me to get a Brazilian wax for "fun". Umm yeah notsomuch.

Testing our Relationship

We aren't getting married in a church. Initially when we started planning I was dead set on having a church wedding. Probably because 98% of the weddings I've been to have been in a church so to me weddings = church. Well we ended up deciding to have our ceremony in the gardens of our reception venue and I'm pretty stoked about it. However this meant that we needed to find someone to marry us.

Kristian suggested using a friend or family member and having them ordained online. While I think the sentiment is sweet I personally feel like it just wouldn't feel real to me the same way as having some sort of religious figure do it whether it's a Minister, Pastor, Reverend, Priest or even a Rabbi for that matter. I wanted someone who does the God thing for a living.

Fortunately for me after my mother retired from the Government she got a job as an office manager for a small Methodist church up in Maryland. I've met her boss Pastor Steve a few times and he's very nice and also on the younger side (late 30's I believe). My mom asked him if he would be willing to perform the ceremony and he agreed. I was very grateful especially since it means he has to get his license to perform weddings in VA just for us.

One of the requirements to having Pastor Steve marry us is doing a few pre-marital counseling sessions. I have no problem with this and I'm actually looking forward to it. I really believe that all couples regardless of their relationship could probably benefit in some way from pre-marital counseling. I think there are a lot of issues that many couples (including us) probably haven't talked about in depth and doing the counseling can help bring some of these topics to light.

We have our first session this Saturday. The way Pastor Steve does it is that he first will give us each a questionnaire/compatibility test. He uses the results of this to help guide what our sessions will be about. For instance if the test shows that we aren't as compatible when it comes to bills/finances we'll spend more time on that topic. If we score perfect on the topic of children than we may not need to focus on that quite as much.

I have to admit I'm a bit nervous. While I believe K and I are very compatible (I wouldn't be marrying him otherwise) what if we do poorly on the test and Pastor Steve decides not to marry us?! My mother said this happened with one couple that came to see him! I would be horrified. I'm not gonna lie I did ask my mom if she could sneak me a copy of the test since she's the one that orders them. She said no.

Wish us luck! I'll be back with a full report on Monday.

The K(C)athy's

Last night I met with the K(C)athy's who are my mom's friends that agreed to be our day of coordinators. We got together at a nearby restuarant to go over all of the plans so far for the wedding and what I'll need for them to do. I made them each a folder with information inside including all the vendors contact information, tentative timeline and list of tasks I'll need for them to do. They said they could tell I'm a mini version of my mother since she is uber organized as well.

I also showed them pictures of the venue and pictures of centerpieces and other decor ideas I have. We talked for over an hour about ideas and they asked me a lot of great questions and gave me a ton of ideas. Another one of their friends, Karla, who is a graphic designer and apparently has an amazing eye for design has also agreed to help out that day with setting everything up.

We talked about taking a trip out to the venue sometime, once all the snow melts, to figure out where we want to place everything as well as do some centerpiece mockups.

Both ladies are very excited about helping out and I feel totally confident that with their help the wedding will go off without a hitch. Since they are two of my mom's closest friends I know they will do everything they can to make sure we have a beautiful wedding!

Vday and Hair Trial Recaps

Kristian and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day/Engagiversary. We decided not to exchange gifts or even buy cards but rather make each other cards. This was actually so much fun we decided to make it a new tradition. Rather than buy him a present I treated him to see Avatar in IMAX 3D (finally!). We both really enjoyed it. He then made me an amazing dinner of steak with lobster meat on top, loaded baked potato, veggies and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Total mouthgasm.



Saturday I was finally able to do my hair trial. Overall it was a good experience but there were both pros and cons to my visit.



First off the salon itself is adorable. It's in an older townhouse in the middle of Old Town Alexandria, a few blocks from the hotel we'll be staying at. There is a huge fireplace which was so nice to have on Saturday and a cute little back patio which will be great in May.



The people there from the receptionist to the owner were very nice and accommodating. The owner even came over to help consult on my hairstyle with my stylist.



I showed my stylist a few pictures of what I liked. She curled my hair and we discussed how because of my hair type I would need to wash my hair the morning of the wedding rather than the night before and put gel in it before blow drying to help it curl better. My hair does NOT hold curl well. She played around with it, pinning it up and testing out a flower hairpiece I brought along.



Both she and the owner determined that for the style I want I really don't have enough hair to get the fullness I'm looking for. They suggested I go and buy a fake human hair piece that they could pin into my hair and curl so that no one would even be able to tell it wasn't my own. They said this would give me the extra hair I needed to really get the effect I want. Since my stylist wasn't able to really get my hair the way I wanted that day I didn't take any pictures. She said that if I decide to buy a hairpiece I could come back and she would do another trial for me free of charge. We could also then trying doing a wetset with the rollers which would also help the curls hold better.



I was disappointed I wasn't able to have her really try out the style I wanted and that I paid for the trial but walked out with my hair looking like I had just curled the ends myself. But I do feel better about the fact that she offered to have me come back again free of charge to test out the style again.



I'm going to price out some fake hair and see if it's something I want to try or just pick another style that works better with the hair I already have. I figure celebrities wear fake hair all the time why can't I?? I think ultimately the stylist I saw will be able to do what I want so I will most likely go back for the free second trial though I would have felt better had she been able to do it the first go round. The pricing and location are also hard to beat and I really enjoyed the overall atmosphere.



Does anyone have any tips on buying fake HUMAN hair to use for special events?

Engagiversary

This Sunday is not only Valentine's Day, aka the official day of love, but it is also Kristian and my one year engagiversary. One year ago the most amazing man I've ever met asked me to be his wife and I couldn't have been happier!!! In honor of our upcoming anniversary I asked Kristian to write about our meeting and subsequent proposal from his point of view. Quick little background...Kristian and I met via match.com so our first date was the first time seeing each other in person. I hope you enjoy this little guest post from my husband to be!

I hurried to hang up the phone as I told Craig, “I think I see her! I gotta go.” And at that moment I got a funny feeling… There is the woman I am going to marry. As Shannon walked through the doors of Bonefish Grille I knew my days of being a single man were going to be over, if I was lucky!

Sure enough six months later I was down on one knee uncontrollably shaking as I shuttered out the words, “Shannon Elizabeth G….., will you marry me?” Yes, Shannon agreed to marry me, Kristian Edward P…..!!! After 31 years of countless nights praying and days upon days dreaming of an amazing wife, my dreams would come true!

It was only about two months until I decided it was time to go diamond shopping, I was so in love I could hardly see straight! Shannon and I had already fallen deeply in love and were joking about how it would be awesome if we were able to marry each other and live “happily ever after” as we walked though the mall looking at all the diamond engagement rings. I was taking notes and listening to everything Shannon liked about diamonds as I knew, “If I am going to do this I am going to do it right because I love this woman so much I gotta make sure she has the coolest ring I can possibly provide.” So for the next few weeks I studied and studied and learned all I could about diamonds and rings and knew exactly what to get.

So after about a month and a half I had acquired an awesome loose cushion cut diamond and had taken it to the local jewelry shop to have it set in a ring that I drew a picture of and had them make it. It was so funny as I joked with Shannon that I had her diamond in my safe and she was like “Yeah right.” Little did she know… Well I received the completed ring back and wore it around on my pinky finger for a couple of days non-stop because it was the coolest thing I ever owned, and was about to give it away!!!

I planned on waiting until the spring when Shannon and I were down at my parents place on the beach of the Potomac to give it to her. But it was Valentine ’s Day and like a five dollar bill burns a hole in a little boys pocket so was that diamond ring burning a hole in my safe to give to Shannon! As I prepared dinner that evening before Shannon came over, I repeatedly told myself, “ I am not going to ask her to marry me tonight, I have to wait!”

As Shannon and I had dinner it was perfect that night. To brag a little bit it was as if I had cupid himself come over and decorate the place. There were hearts, flowers, ribbons, candies and love was surely in the air. As we sat and ate an incredible filet mignon and various other love foods the music came over me. Shannon had made a music mix of love songs and they slowly whittled away at me, as I got up from the table went back to my room and brought back the ring. I got down on one knee in front of Shannon and asked her to Marry ME! She said, YES!!! But not before she said SHUT UP and Oh My God! In disbelief I might add! Too funny! I placed the ring on her finger and became the luckiest man alive.

100 Days

As of today we are exactly 100 days out from the wedding!!! Umm where the hell has the time gone? I can't believe that starting tomorrow we'll be in the double digits on the countdown. I suspect these will be the fastest 100 days of my life.

Yesterday while stuck yet again in the house for Blizzard 2010 2.0 I started working on printing out our invitations. I went online to download the print templates for the invites I purchased at Michael's then replaced the text on the template with our text. Sounds simple enough...3 hours later I was done with my 1st invitation. It took me a while to get the layouts to print just right since our invites have more wording than the templates. But once I was done I was VERY pleased with the outcome. Not to toot my own horn but I think they look far more expensive than they were. I sent pictures to both mother's so they could double check all of our spelling and grammar and they both LOVED them. I promise to post pictures once these are all done and in the mail. My plan is to continue to print and assemble these this weekend so that they'll be ready to send out mid-end of March.

Next on my to-do list is to start working on our favors. Once I have all materials and put these together I'll do a post on those as well.

This Saturday I'll finally get to have my hair trial which I had to postpone two weeks ago because of what else...snow. So far the forecast looks clear until at least Monday so I should be good to go. Hopefully I like what they do so I can book that and have another thing checked off my list.

Oh and tomorrow I will be having a very special guest poster. Get excited!

Over Here! Over Here!

Well the DC area is getting spanked AGAIN with snow today! I don't know who pissed off Mother Nature but she seems to be PMSing all over us.

In other news you can find me over HERE today. I did my first ever guest post for my girl Kristen. Come by and take a peek if you want to see some pictures of me in my younger/blonder days.

Now I'm off to enjoy the fantastic breakfast the boy is cooking and continue to watch the snow fall.

Step This Way

Being snowed in for three days I wanted to get some items checked off my to-do list, the main one being that I wanted to start printing and assembling our invites however someone *cough*Kristian*cough* bought the wrong ink cartridge for the printer so that nipped that idea in the bud.

Instead I decided to take some time and bedazzle my wedding shoes. I really wanted to add a bit of sparkle to the bottom of my shoes which I think will make for some cute pictures. So I took the pack of rhinestones and adhesive I bought at WalMart a few weeks back and went to work.

(My wedding shoes aka my something blue)

(Right shoe reads "I DO" and the left is our wedding date- 05 22 10)

(Some subtle sparkle)

I've mentioned before that I'm not very crafty or much of a DIYer. This is pretty much the extent of my skills. Since these were individual rhinestones I had to really take my time...and my tweezers to get these glued in place. Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

I also bedazzled one of the items I've bought for each of my bridesmaids which I plan to show in another post at a later date. I'm thinking of taking the rest of the rhinestones to help dress up our invites or programs. We're suppose to get ANOTHER 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow night so who knows what else I may end up bedazzling if I continue to be housebound. The cats should probably hide now.

SnOw.M.G.

The DC area got spanked yet again this weekend by Miss Mother Nature with approximately 2 FEET of snow. This is the second massive snowstorm we've gotten this winter which is completely unheard of. So much for Global Warming eh? The snow started falling around 10am on Friday (I left work at 1pm) and didn't end until around 10pm Saturday. We've basically been housebound, though Kristian did take his 4Runner out today to re-stock up on beer for the big game tonight and came home surprising me with Starbucks (he's a good boy). Right now we have brownies baking and are getting ready to cook a frozen lasagna for dinner while we watch the Superbowl. Since my car still isn't completely dug out and the streets are still a mess I suspect I will be working from home tomorrow.

Enjoy some pics of Blizzard 2010:

(Snow Ninja)

(Halpert actually loves the snow)

(The snow was almost up to my waist...granted I'm only 5 feet tall but still)

(It was still coming down hard yesterday)

(The trees were beautiful)
(Glad our neighborhood has a snowblower to clean the sidewalks...not so glad they decided to do this at 6am today)
(Guess we won't be getting mail anytime soon)


(If it weren't for my windshield wipers you wouldn't be able to see my car)

(One side of my car)

Friendly visits

I am so lucky to have a handful of friends that I've known for a decade or longer. Many of my closest friends are girls that I met in my sorority. Unfortunately since college we've all moved to various areas of the East Coast and don't get to see each other as often as we would like.

Right after graduation it was easier for everyone to get together but over the years people have gotten married, had babies and become busier with their careers so it's not uncommon for months to go by without being able to visit each other. Back in 2008 several of my girlfriends got married and between the showers, bachelorette parties and weddings I was able to see my friends several times that year. It was great.

I was so excited this morning when I realized that over the next few months I'll have several opportunities to see some of my favorite people. There will be at least one event each month between now and May which give me the chance to visit with some of my closest friends.

-February-- I will be heading back down to East Carolina University at the end of this month for my sororities 50th Anniversary of being on ECU's campus. There will be a formal Saturday night with dinner and dancing and there will not only be the current AOII members but Alumni dating back to the early 90's. I haven't seen some of these girls in years and I can't wait to take Kristian to show him around the place where I spent some of the best years of my life.

-March --My matron of honor is hosting my shower/bachelorette party weekend down in Raleigh, NC where she lives. It will be a small group of my college friends, most of whom live in NC.

-April -- I will be heading back down to NC again, this time to Charlotte for KLaw's baby shower! Kristen is my friend that lives the furthest distance away, requiring a plane flight for any visit so I'm especially excited for the chance to see her and celebrate such a joyous occaision.

-May -- My wedding!!! I realize that with all the craziness that will be going on that weekend I probably won't get to spend quite as much time with my girlfriends as I would like so I'm very relieved to have these other opportunities prior to the wedding to catch up with everyone.

Having the chance to see my friends up to 4 times in the next 4 months makes me so incredibly happy. It's hard living so far from the people I love that I really do cherish every opportunity we have to get together.

Guests in our own home

We live in a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo. Our second bedroom has a bed (obviously), tv, bookcase, desk of course houses Kristian's "man closet" which is where he keeps all his fishing and hunting stuff. It's been great having the second bedroom especially on the nights when Kristian's snoring is out of control and I need to banish him to the other room so I can get my beauty sleep.

I woke up yesterday morning to discover Kristian wasn't in bed, nor was he in the bathroom. I got up and found him sleeping in the guest room which was odd because I didn't recall having to yell at him about his snoring that night. He said he had had bad heartburn and was tossing and turning and didn't want to wake me up so he went to the other room. He's a sweet one right?

He then pointed out how comfortable the guest room bed is and that it maybe we should actually sleep in there every now and then. I was down. So last night we decided to pretend we were guests in our own home and sleep in the other bedroom. There's just one big problem with this. That's actually the bed the cats sleep on and neither seemed too please about our migration. Wendal gave us a dirty look and proceeded to go into the living room. Halpert (or as we like to call him Satan's Little Helper) decided to take the more direct, asshole approach. He waited til I had been sleeping for a good 2 hours, hit my REM stage to jump all over the room, using the furniture for his own personal cat Olympics. I tried kicking him out but he then proceeded to claw at the carpet outside the door.

Finally I gave up, cussed out the cat and went back to our bedroom, shut the door and slept alone (Kristian was passed out during this entire event). Around 6:30 this morning Kristian crawled back into bed and said that Halpert had spent the last hour jumping from the floor to the bed and using him as a hurdle. The cats have never bothered Kristian before when he's slept in there alone but I guess adding me to the mix pushed them over the edge.

Lesson learned- the cats would prefer it if we stayed in our own damn bed.

I took this picture last weekend when Kristian was taking a nap in the guest room.

Aren't my boys adorable??

Snow Fail

Yes that's right I said Snow Fail not Snow Fall. Seriously Mother Nature...did you not get the memo that VA is considered to be a southern state. WTF with all this snow? I'm over it.

Here's the thing, I don't dislike snow. It's pretty, it's fun, it's not something you see very often. However this winter Mother Nature has tried to kick the shit out of the DC area. In addition to the more than foot of snow we got right before Christmas, we've had several little mini storms in the past month. I don't mind snow if it gets me out of work but usually it doesn't. In fact we got about 4-5 inches last night and guess where I am right now....work.

As for this business of it snowing on the weekend...ummm...no thanks. I have shit to do. This wedding is fast approaching and I need my weekends to run errands and meet with people. Remember last week when I mentioned my hair trial that was suppose to be on Saturday...well that got reschedule due to the snow we got this past weekend. As of now it's suppose to be on the 13th (fingers crossed for no snow). This weekend we're suppose to take my mom (who lives an hour away) out to lunch for her birthday but yet again they are calling for a massive snowstorm so that probably won't happen. The birthday lunch has also been tentatively rescheduled for the 13th along with my first dress fitting. Basically if it snows on the 13th then F.M.L.

I'm suppose to be going down to ECU at the end of the month for our sororities 50th Anniversary. I'll have the chance to see a lot of girls I haven't seen in YEARS and by God if it snows Mother Nature and I will have words. Ugly 4 letter words. I'm ready for winter to GTFO and to welcome in the spring.

It's been a long 9 months....

But tonight it's finally BACK!!!

Both Kristian and I are super excited for the premiere of LOST tonight. This is one of our favorite shows and pretty much the only show that we BOTH really look forward to watching.

We both have a special place in our heart for this show because it reminds us of a time when we grew much closer in our relationship.

Back in Dec. of 2008 Kristian had to have surgery on his neck for a Cervical Fusion. After the surgery he was required to stay at home for about 3 weeks. He spent the first week in a lot of pain. His mother would come over during the day to help take care of him and I went over at night after work for the night shift. I would make him dinner, do his laundry and keep him company. It was a time when we grew even closer and I think it's what solidified for him that I was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Prior to the surgery we were trying to think of ways to keep him entertained while he was stuck at home. I knew he had never watched LOST and being that it was one of my favorite shows I thought it would be a great opportunity for him to start watching it and catch up prior to last year's season premiere. As anyone whose seen the show knows, you can't just start watching this show midway through without being completely lost...pun intended.

So I went to blockbuster and rented the first 4 seasons for him, which he would spend about 12 hours everyday watching. He was hooked. To him it was like a REALLY long movie. He would even have dreams about it at night. I would watch with him when I went over after work and we had a great time together. He credits this with helping him to recover faster and keep his mind off the pain.

We then watched last season together every week and really looked forward to it. So needless to say we can't wait for tonight and to start up the obsession again. My only concern is that the Series Finale could very possibly end up airing while we're on our honeymoon in May.

Anyone else excited for the premiere tonight?

Finished!

Just over a month and approximately 2,400 pages later and I'm finally FINISHED reading the Twilight series!! I must admit.... I loved it. I'm hooked. I'm back on Team Edward!

I should say that I've already seen the first two movies. I saw them both prior to reading the books. I watched Twilight via Netflix mainly out of curiosity and to see what all the hype was about. I watched it twice. Then I proceeded to drag Kristian with me to see New Moon which I also really enjoyed. I originally had no intention of reading the books...I had better things to do like watch bad reality tv and read US Weekly. However after seeing New Moon I just HAD to find out what happened next!

So my future mother in law (who has also read the series along with my future sister and niece in law) bought me the series for Christmas. I started reading right away and finally finished at 10pm last night. Kristian was a big fan of me reading the series b/c A. It often put me in an "amourous" mood and B. It kept me quiet and occupied. HA!

My thoughts on the books-

Twilight- I liked the book better than the movie but overall I thought the movie followed the book pretty close. One of my pet peeves is when movies totally divert from the books they are based on. And now I totally get the obsession with Edward. Swoon. **Note I still don't get the obsession with R. Patz.

New Moon- I preferred the movie to the book on this one...probably b/c of Taylor Lautner's fantastic 6 pack. While it was interesting learning more about the wolves history I missed having Edward and Bella together. After watching the movie I was Team Jacob (again thank you six packs)

Eclispe-- Reading this book was cool because I didn't have the movie as a prior reference. I really enjoyed this book and all the action at the end. I can't wait to see how this translate to the film. After this book I was back on Team Edward.

Breaking Dawn- Holy 700 and some pages! I felt like I just gave birth after reading this book. No pun intended. This was probably my favorite of the series. So much was crammed into it and the twist involving Jacob was a nice touch. I thought overall the series ended well. I think they will probably need to make this book into two movies if they don't want to leave a lot out, there's just too many events to cram into a two hour movie.

Now I plan to take a break for a while before diving into any more novels. I have a lot of "trash" magazines to catch up on and it will be nice to actually talk and hang out with Kristian again at night rather than have my face buried in a book about vampire love.