I Love Fall

Over the past few weeks blogland has been inundated with posts on what everyone loves about the fall...to sum up, everyone loves the leaves on the tree, pumpkin spice lattes, college football, boots/sweaters/scarves etc etc. Don't get me wrong I dig that stuff too but here's what I love about the fall...all my favorite t.v. shows are BACK!

Yep it's like having a bunch of your closest friends return from a summer abroad. And no I don't feel like a loser for referring to my shows as my closest friends. I'm a t.v. addict through and through. Does it drive Kristian crazy at times, sure, but he always realizes it keeps me quiet and occupied and out of his hair. Win Win.

The beginning of the fall t.v. season can be quite overwhelming with both returning favorites and new shows competing against each other. And of course there is always the hesitation to invest too soon into a new show which could quite likely be cancelled 5 episodes in. So like with any relationship you must proceed with caution and not put too much of your heart into it until you're sure it will stick around.

All I know is that if it weren't for DVR I would probably have a mild panic attack every night trying to determine what to watch. Even with the DVR and 3 t.v.'s in our condo it's tricky at times (like Monday's and Thursday's which are jammed packed).

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, yes I still talk to and hang out with my husband despite my packed t.v. schedule...that's what commercials are for :)

So in case anyone cares here's what I'm watching so far (list could change due to cancellations):

Sunday-
Watch
9pm- Desperate Housewives
10pm- Mad Men
DVR
9pm- Bridezillas (yes I still watch this...don't judge!)
10pm- Brothers & Sisters

Monday-
Watch
8pm- 90210
9pm- Gossip Girl
10pm- Hawaii 5-0 (it has Tweeter from Varsity Blues in it!!!)
DVR
8pm- Chuck
9pm- The Event (still not sure how I feel about this show yet)
11pm- Real Housewives of whatever city they are showing, I always DVR the second showing so that I can DVR other stuff when it airs the first time. It's called DVR time management.

Tuesday-
Watch
8pm- GLEEEEEEE!!! (Um I CANNOT wait for tonight's Britney episode!)
9pm- Raising Hope (new show, kinda cute, not sure if I like it or not)
10pm- Teen Mom (yes I like this show, shut up)
DVR
8pm- One Tree Hill (not a big fan of this show anymore, hence the DVR, I may watch it, I may not)

Wednesday-
Watch
8pm- Undercovers (new show, not sure I really like it yet or not)
9pm- Modern Family (GREAT show)
10pm- Top Chef

Thursday- ALL Star TV night
Watch
8pm- My Generation (cute new show, not sure it will last though)
9pm- The Office (my favorite show of them all)
Here's where it gets tricky-
DVR
9pm- Grey's Anatomy (I start watching this as soon as The Office is over)
10pm- Private Practice (will watch this once I finish watching Grey's Anatomy)
11pm- Real Housewives of DC
**I will DVR the Saturday showing of Project Runway since I can't fit it in my DVR schedule on Thursday
**Another new show on Thursdays I like but have to watch online is Nikita...has a very Alias vibe to it and Alias is one of my all time favorite shows.

Friday-
DVR
9pm- Say Yes to the Dress
10pm- Four Weddings (I still love wedding shows what can I say???)

Saturday-
Catch up on DVR shows from the week and relinquish the t.v. to Kristian for football.

Well there you have it. What shows do you watch?? Anything I should be working into my schedule???

Picniking

I'm sure most of you have heard of and probably used the photo editing site Picnik before. For those that haven't, it's a great site where you can edit photos for free (or pay to upgrade to premium membership). You can do more than just crop your pictures and change colored photos to black and white. They have all sorts of cool effects you can use or add text to the photos. Since I sometimes ride the slow bus I actually didn't start using this site until a few months ago. Granted prior to the wedding I really didn't have much need to, most of the pictures I take are pretty straight forward and don't need fancy editing.

Well I was bored a while back and decided to take some of my wedding pictures and see what I could do with them via Picnik. I should say that I love my pictures and didn't think they really needed editing but after staring at the same photos for a few months I thought it would be fun to change them up a bit.

Below are some of my newly edited photos. I'm a big fan of having the background blurred a bit, I think it gives such a neat effect.

You can even have a picture edited to look like a hand drawing. How neat is that??

So do you picnik?

Good news and bad news from the weekend

Bad news first... despite a great first half my ECU Pirates lost their game against Kristian's VA Tech Hokies. I don't know what happened but the Pirates seemed to just forget how to play when they came back from halftime. It was still a fun day, we had a few friends over to watch and at least I didn't have to deal with a grumpy husband all night.

This picture was taken at halftime when Tech was losing hence the pissed off look on Kristian's face. And yes we're wearing matching shirts. I found these ECU/VA Tech game day shirts online and couldn't resist buying one for us both. I promise this is the only time we'll ever dress alike!

The good GREAT news of the weekend is that one of my closest friends, Kelli gave birth to her first child today!! Hopefully I'll get to meet him in person this weekend.

Welcome to the world Ryan Joseph!

Picture of me and Kelli from the wedding (she was a bridesmaid). She was 5 months pregnant at the time and trying to show off her belly...she thinks this picture makes her look like she has to pee but I love it and think it's really cute.

The WTF of the day

I read this today on PerezHilton.com. I have to second his WTF sentiments!!

E! has ordered Bridalplasty, where brides compete in wedding-themed challenges to win extreme plastic surgery.

WTF?!

The woman will go head-to-head writing wedding vows and planning honeymoons. The winner of the challenge will receive a plastic surgery procedure from her "wish list." She goes into surgery immediately and the results are seen in the following episode.


The show's description states the brides risk "possibly walking away with nothing and losing [their] chance to be the perfect bride."


OMG! That is SO dark!


The last bride standing will get her "dream wedding," where she will reveal her new appearance to her loved ones.


"Viewers will witness his emotional and possibly shocked reaction as they stand at the altar and he lifts her veil to see her for the first time following her extreme plastic surgery," said E!.


The Swan surgeon Terry Dubrow will turn these ladies into clones while Shanna Moakler hosts and Giuliana Rancic executive produces.
Ew. Ew. Ew.

Listen I'm not gonna lie, would it have been nice to have a boob job to help fill out my wedding dress or maybe a little botox to get rid of my frown lines for my wedding. Sure. But Extreme plastic surgery which would probably make me look like a totally different person a la Heidi Montag?! No thank you!! After all Kristian fell in love with me as is. Yes I know brides want to look their best on their wedding days, I certainly did, but this is just ridiculous!! I feel bad for any woman who has such low self esteem that they would choose to go on such a show.

Will any of you be watching?



Maybe it's just gas

Yesterday was my annual visit with the "lady doctor". As always it was a very entertaining visit. First it should be noted that I have gained back all the weight I lost right before the wedding due to stress. It was no surprise since my pants no longer fall off me and I can actually fill out my bras again which makes Kristian happy. However somehow I lost an inch in a year. WTEff! Last year I was allegedly 5'1 now I'm back to 5'0! Guess that means I have to give up on my dream of being America's Next Top Model!

Anyways the hilarity began during the question portion of the exam when once again they first asked me my marital status - Married. Followed by asking me if I'm sexually active - My husband would certainly hope so! Then my favorite question which is how many sexual partners I have- ONE!!!!! Okay I know there are some skanky married chicks that probably have more than one but the question still cracks me up.

During the exam the doctor, knowing I'm recently married, of course asked me about our baby making plans. And since most of my knowledge of baby making comes from watching Teen Mom I did have a few questions. Ummm did you know that some women don't get their period again for up to 6 months after getting off the pill?!?! This was brand new information to me. So basically that would mean having to pretty much take a pregnancy test on a weekly basis to see if you're late because your pregs or because your body is just wonky. Good thing they sell those at the dollar store!

We then somehow transitioned to talking about those nutty women on TLC's "I didn't know I was pregnant" and my doctor said she's had patients like that! One went full term without knowing (obviously she hadn't been to the doctor in those 9 months). Another one found out at 6 months during her annual exam after insisting there was no way she was pregnant. I asked my doctor how on Earth it's possible to not know you're pregnant for 6-9 months. Her response "Denial". Hell, wouldn't you feel the baby kick after a while? Though I suppose they write that off to just being gas. I just don't get it.

Do any of you know someone who went more than 5 months not knowing they were pregnant??

PWD = Post Wedding Depression

One question that Kristian kept asking me during the whole wedding planning process was "what are you going to do after the wedding?" i.e. "what are you going to do without having a wedding to obsess over?" and my response was always "NOTHING" and I couldn't wait. A lot of brides suffer from PWD or Post Wedding Depression and I would be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that feared I would also be a casualty of PWD. After all I had been mentally planning my wedding since I was old enough to know what a wedding was. When you wait 30 years for one event it would be totally natural to feel a bit deflated after it was over. But you know what? I really didn't have much PWD!

Oh yes there have been and still are times when I get a little down, even almost 4 months out. It usually occurs when one or more of the following happen:

-When a  friend announces their engagement...I can't help but feel a bit envious of all the excitement they have ahead of them.

-I see some other amazing wedding photos be it in a magazine or on a blog...I continue to see such cool ideas that I wish I had had the time, money or creativity to incorporate into my own wedding.

-When another month passes and I get further away from being a "newlywed". I like being a "shiny new wife", as Kristian likes to call me. And even though I complain about people constantly asking me how married life is, it's nice that people are interested. I know it won't last forever.

But then I breathe a sigh of relief and relish the fact that wedding planning is over when I think about all the not so fun parts of it such as:

-The constant stress and anxiety of planning and paying for a wedding.

-Managing family and friends and vendors and making sure that everyone knows what they are doing or where they are going. And having to constantly answer a million questions or make a million different decisions.

-Having to save every penny for the wedding and not be able to do the fun things you want to because of it.

-Spending most of your nights and weekends working on wedding stuff rather than just hanging out and doing fun things with the person you are marrying.

As stressful as it was at times, I did have a lot of fun planning my wedding and going through the whole process of it. However I'm totally happy that it's over and I can just be back to my normal life with some amazing memories to look back on. That doesn't however, mean that I don't still enjoy reading wedding blogs or watching wedding shows (much to Kristian's disappointment) but now I'm ready to look forward to the other big life events like buying a house or having a baby or planning my 10 year vow renewal :-)

I think one of the things that really helped me was being able to recap the wedding on this blog. I was able to share all the photos and relive all the moments again and now I have a wonderful record of it all to keep and look back on.

Have you/will you experience any PWD?

Mother and Daughter

This weekend I had lunch with my mother and when I met her at her condo I was looking at the all the photos she had up from my wedding. My favorite was a 2-photo picture frame she had on her wall. The top picture is a photo of her on her wedding day and the bottom picture is a photo of me in a similar pose on my wedding day. I loved it and I can only hope that in 20-something years I can add a photo of my daughter on her wedding day. One thing to note is that I was 10 years older on my wedding day than my mom was on her wedding day.

Isn't my mom beautiful?

My mother on her wedding day- June 2, 1968
(20 years old)

Me on my wedding day- May 22, 2010
(30 years old)

Can you see a resemblance?

Surprise FAIL

After I received the wedding album I created via Shutterfly I decided to make another album with pictures of all the pre-wedding events including the proposal, engagement party, showers, rehearsal dinner etc. I received the photobook yesterday and it looks great (though I messed up 3 captions, oh well).

I couldn't wait to show the book to Kristian but he had to work late last night. He called me when he left his appointment to let me know he would be home soon and I told him I had a surprise for him.

When he got home he looked a bit disappointed to see me sitting on the couch in my pajamas

Kristian: I thought my surprise was going to be you waiting for me in sexy lingerie when I got home

Me: Really? Shit, I suck. Now my surprise is going to be super lame.

Kristian: No it's okay what's the surprise

Me: This photobook  *me feeling like the lamest person ever*

Kristian: Aww this is lame great!

Kristian: I'm also working late tomorrow night so if you want to do the lingerie thing tomorrow that'd be cool

Guess I know what I'm doing tonight! 

It's not MY money it's OUR money

One of the biggest adjustments I've had to make being married is the idea of merging finances, it's no longer just MY money it's OUR money and vice versa. I've always been a very independent person financially, I got my first steady job at age 15 and have been working every since. I had a job all through college, at one point I worked 2 jobs but after getting a 2.0 GPA that semester I decided to quit one. It's always been very important to me to have my own money and be able to support myself financially and up to this point I have, with very little assistance from my family.

Before we got married Kristian and I discussed what we would do about merging finances. Because of how he grew up and watching his parents he felt that we should completely merge everything and share all accounts and credit cards like his parents do. After watching my parent's messy divorce and the financial toll it took on my mom I felt strongly about having at least some of my money separate. He wasn't happy about this, he viewed it as my planning for a potential divorce which really wasn't my intention, I just think it's smart for ALL women to have some level of financial independence even if they are married.

After talking to some married friends and going back and forth we decided we would have one main shared account which all our bills would be paid from as well as a shared savings account to save for trips, new cars etc. In addition to that we would each keep a separate personal account. This way we would have our own fun money to spend how we wish. Now I can't bitch at him if he wants to buy a new fishing pole and he can't bitch at me for buying new shoes whenever I want. This is also the money we would use when buying gifts for each other.

We went on Friday to open up our first joint checking and savings account and it was definitely a surreal experience, after all I've never shared an account with a boy before!
Sidenote- we have a shared credit card and another shared savings account with a different bank that we set up strictly for wedding expenses but Kristian's never used either so even though his name is on both I feel like they are both just mine.

We still need to figure out the logistics of how much of each paycheck will go in the joint account vs. our personal accounts. It's hard since his job is commission based so instead of a bi-monthly paycheck he'll get one big commission check every month or so.

It's going to be a big adjustment for me. I'm not good at sharing, either my food or my money. I don't mind spending money on things for us or writing him a check to pay my part of the bills but knowing he has full access to my money at anytime does admittedly make me a bit uncomfortable. It's not because I don't trust him...it's not that AT ALL, it's just a change and I don't like change. Like I said I've always been very independent and protective of my finances and sharing money I think is one of the biggest forms of trust you can have with another person.

Share time- How do/will you handle sharing finances with your significant other?

A Perfect Weekend

I'm not big on the whole weekend recap posts but I have to write about our Labor Day Weekend since it was pretty flawless. It consisted of the following:

-Perfect weather Every. Day.

-Saturday was the first day of bowhunting season, so Kristian woke up at 4am to go shoot his first deer. He was home back in bed with deer meat in the fridge and a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte for me by 9am.

-Saturday afternoon we headed to my in-laws beach house for relaxation on the pier and got to watch Kristian catch a huge sting-ray (he let it go). There were 6 adults, 4 kids and 5 dogs so definitely a full house!

*hanging out on the pier*

*partaking in a few adult beverages*

*helping his sister try to reel in the stingray*


*taking over the reel to finish the job*



I love this picture of him on the beach in the sunlight

*continuing to reel in the stingray*

*Success!*

-We had a great dinner on the deck with the whole family.

-Followed by S'mores on the beach

-And Kristian helping his nephew set off fireworks on the beach

-Sunday we came home so I could watch my ECU Pirates win 51-49 with an amazing touchdown pass with 5 seconds left! Incredible!

-Monday I went shopping and was able to buy a pair of heels, a belt, a sweater dress, 2 long sleeve shirts and 3 sweaters all for about $100! I love F21. Then I cleaned out and re-organized my closet.

-Monday night Kristian went to the VA Tech game at FedEx Field and I stayed home, got some Chinese takeout and watched my trashy reality t.v. Unfortunately Tech didn't win which would have capped off the perfect weekend but at least he got to be at the game and see his team play in person from box seats no less!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

A decision's been made

First I wanted to thank everyone who commented on Friday about what I should do with my blog. I was pleased that no one left a comment telling me I suck and should just delete my blog altogether because my feelings probably would have been a tad hurt. So I decided to take the advice of most of you and keep my current blog and just change the name. After a bit of thinking this weekend I decided to change my blogs name to:

From Match to Marriage

As I mentioned in my "How We Met" post Kristian and I met via match.com so the title seemed fitting. I hope everyone likes it...and if you don't...oh well I ain't changing it.

I've made a few other updates to my sidebar including pictures of me and my handsome husband and the links to some of our wedding vendors. I may make a few other tweaks here and there but for now I'm happy with how it looks.

Hopefully the new name will automatically update in everyones readers. If anyone knows of something I need to do to make that happen let me know.

Where to go from here

When I first started this blog I did so with the intention of chronicling not only my wedding planning but also just the whole engagement period of my life. My initial plan (and I still want to do this) was to eventually print off every post and put them together in a little book to have as a keepsake. The blog also gave me an outlet to talk about the wedding as much or as little as I wanted and spare my friends from my constant wedding talk. I really never imagined people would actually read what I wrote or give a shit about my wedding but much to my happy surprise people have and it's been great. I've made some really great "bloggie friends".

So here's the thing I don't want to give up blogging, I really do enjoy it and I plan to continue to do it. Maybe not as often because let's face it my life is kinda boring but I can't foresee myself quitting it altogether. I'll probably still talk about my wedding and weddings in general because let's be honest I've been obsessed with weddings my whole life and mine especially and that's not gonna change anytime soon. However, I also plan to blog about being a newlywed and navigating the waters of being someones wife as well as whatever other shit pops in my head.

So here's my question, what should I do with my blog?? I've come up with a few ideas and I would love some feedback from the peanut gallery.

A- start a whole new blog ---I'm leaning away from this idea because it seems like a lot of extra work and to be honest I would hate to abandon this little corner of the blog world that I've created.

B- Keep the blog the same exact way --- This isn't a horrible idea except that the title no longer really fits my life. After all I'm not a bride anymore *sad face* I never expected to really keep up with the whole blogging thing otherwise I would have come up with a more generic title from the start.

C- Keep the blog but change the name --- This is the more likely scenario. I've thought of a few names though suggestions are welcomed and encouraged! Here's my question, if I just change the title of the blog does it automatically change in people's readers? Would people have to re-save it in their readers with the new name? I'm so blog stupid when it comes to stuff like this.

So what do you think? Where should I go from here? Have any of you changed your blog name or just started new blogs when your life circumstances changed?

Oh and I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend!!

Guess what today is!!

9-02-10

Yep that's right folks, it's 90210 day! So let's all take a moment to pay our respects to one of the best shows of the 90's Beverly Hills 90210!!

via Google images

(I definitely don't miss 90's fashion...heinous)

This was by far one of my favorite shows growing up. I couldn't get enough of the gang from West Beverly High. I have to say that Brenda was probably my favorite but that could be because the actress and I share the same first name (though why she spells it with an 'e' I'll never know). I'm still rooting for a Dylan/Brenda reunion. I always preferred Kelly with Brandon.

I wasn't as big of a fan of the college years and once they graduated from college I didn't watch as much...by then I had moved on to Dawson's Creek which we all watched every Wednesday night in the sorority house.

Whenever I'm bored on the weekends I have no problem turning on one of the 90210 reruns that are shown constantly on Soapnet. The episodes just never get old for me.

As for the new remake of 90210, I'm really not a fan. I'll watch the show but in my opinion it just can't compete with the original.

We're any of you fans of 90210 or am I the only loser out there??

The #1 Post Married Question

For many couples the #1 question they get right after getting married is "so when are you having kids?" I mean sheesh give 'em time to unpack from the honeymoon at least before you expect them to start popping the babies out. For us that surprisingly hasn't been our biggest question (though my mom's friend has already offered to throw me a future baby shower!) I think this is due largely to the fact that both of our parents already have grandkids so they aren't in a huge rush for us to start procreating.

Just for the record, if anyone is curious, we probably won't start trying until spring or summer of next year at the earliest. We need to move, get our finances in better shape etc. before we bring a little one into the mix.

No, for us, or rather for me, the most asked question I get is "So how's married life?". I get this almost daily, more than 3 months after the fact. Everybody asks me this, friends, co-workers, clients, vendors. It's amazing. I understand they are just trying to be nice and make conversation and show interest but it's such a funny question to me. What do they expect me to say "It's horrible and I want a divorce"? Even if God forbid that were true do they think I would really tell them?!

I typically respond with "It's good so far, I still like him" but I'm always tempted to say "Mine's great, how's yours?"

Like I said it doesn't bother me, I know they are just trying to be nice but if you really think about it, it's a rather personal question dontcha think? You don't see people asking couples who have been together for years "So how's married life?", maybe because they are afraid of the answer. With newlyweds I guess it's a pretty safe bet that the answer will be positive.

Time to share: what questions have you been asked since getting married or if you aren't married what kinds of other personal questions do you get asked a lot??