Weekend in Pictures

Wednesday night:

Finally saw New Moon. Loved it. Since I haven't read the books I only have the first two movies to go off of and I have to admit I'm batting for Team Jacob right now. Not only are his abs TDF but I think he's really sweet with Bella. Edward is a bit too skinny and pale for my taste however the last line of the movie OMG!! I'm tempted to go read Eclipse just to see what happens next.

Thursday:

Amazing dinner at Kristian's parents house. All of his aunts/uncles and cousins on his dad's side were there along with 6 dogs running around. It really was a full house. His mom decorated beautifully, everyone brought a dish or two and it was just the type of Thanksgiving I've always imagined having. We spent the rest of the night in a food coma.

Friday:

Kristian spent most of the day hunting and I spent most of the day laying on the couch except for a quick trip to Target. I left needing cat litter and came home with a new scarf, 4 necklaces and a few picture frames. Gotta love Black Friday deals. That night we played Christmas music and started decorating the house then finished by watching Love Actually which is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Saturday:
Met up with my friend Lauren for lunch and had a chance to catch up and have some needed girl talk. Afterwards I stopped by Old Navy and took advantage of their sale and bought Kristian two new sweaters and two new pairs of jeans which unfortunately didn't fit. Then I met up with Kristian to hang out with his buddies including his best man Kevin who was in town from Texas. We all hung out and watched the VA Tech football game. His buddy Bryan ended up crashing at our place and the three of us had a great time talking and laughing. I'm so happy that I get along with all of his friends.

Sunday:

We had my mom and brother Michael over for a belated Thanksgiving lunch of blue cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon, green beans, mashed potatoes, cherry pie and cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes which are in a word Delish! Oh and the last picture of us with the cats is going on our Christmas Cards this year. The cats hate us now and will probably pee on the carpet in retaliation but I couldn't resist.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Giving Thanks

This has been one whirlwind year for me, probably the most exciting and stressful year of my life to date and seeing how Thanksgiving is tomorrow I want to write about all that I’m thankful for this year.

Kristian—My best friend, my heart and my future husband. He has brought so much more joy into my life than I ever thought was possible. I never thought I would find someone to love me so unconditionally but he truly does and for that I’ll be forever thankful

Family—Both mine and Kristian’s…they have offered us so much support both emotional and financial when it comes to planning this little thing I like to call a wedding. We really couldn’t do any of this without them

Halpert and Wendal—AKA our furbabies. I don’t know how I lived so long without having a pet in my life. Even when they drive us crazy by waking us up at the ass crack of dawn, they make us laugh on a daily basis and bring us so much happiness.

Real Life Friends—Most of my close friends have been in my life for 10 years or longer, they’ve seen all my ups and downs and many of my crazy, stalker, why-the-hell-are-you-dating-him moments and for better or worse have continued to put up with me. I just hope they all know how truly thankful I am to have each and every one of them in my life.

Blog Friends- It’s amazing to me how connected I feel to people I’ve never met in real life (though I hope one day to). All of your support, advice and enthusiasm has really made the stresses of wedding planning so much easier. I’m so happy I’ve found you all and I look forward to continuing to share our lives. To sympathize with each other during sad times and rejoice together during happy times. A special shoutout to Ela who wrote easily one of the sweetest things ever about me today. You my darling are amazing!

J-O-B- As much as I hate waking up before the sun rises and dragging my ass to work M-F for 8 hours a day I am very thankful to not only have A job but one where I like my co-workers and clients, get paid well and even get Xmas bonuses. In these shitty economic times I realize how incredibly lucky I am!

Health- As of yet no pig inspired illness has invaded my body and I’m very thankful for that!

DVR- If it weren’t for you I would never be able to leave my house or keep up with my trashy reality shows like Real Housewives or Bridezillas

Internet- If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have ever found my job, been able to plan my wedding, met my bloggie friends or found the love of my life.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

BB&B

We decided that in addition to registering at Crate and Barrel we also wanted to register at Bed, Bath and Beyond so that our guests would have plenty of options. Also, because I LOVE BB&B.

Kristian's mom mentioned that some family members may decide to buy us xmas presents off our registry and that we should probably finish registering sooner rather than later. Since a lot of people do the whole Black Friday shopping thing we decidedto go last night while the store wasn't too crowded.

All the sales people were very friendly and helpful and overall we had a pleasant experience. Below are some of the items we registered for:

(Bedding for the guest room)

(New cookware)

(Large suitcase to take on the honeymoon!)

(Dual showerhead...yes please!)

(Keurig single cup coffee maker, we have one at my work and I LOVE this thing)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hits and Misses

Friday night-
Hit- Coming home to a newly cleaned condo courtesy of my loving fiancé who knew I was stressed out
Miss- Taking over an hour to get home because of traffic…hence the stress

Saturday-
Hit- Meeting with a florist that I think I will book to do our bouquets for the wedding
Miss- Getting a phone call on the way home from one of my vendors saying there is an issue with one of my jobs that is suppose to complete today. Spent the remainder of the weekend stressed out about this.

Hit- Getting to talk to my girl Kristen
Miss- Dialing her by mistake when I meant to call Kristian who is in my phone after her and thinking she was some skanky Ho answering my man’s phone
Hit- We got a great laugh out of it.

Hit- Going to a party at K’s friends house and meeting some cool people and eating some great cake
Miss- Driving K home while he puked both on the window (couldn’t get it down in time) and in TWO different bags. Guess that last shot of Bourbon was a bad idea!

Sunday-
Hit- Spending a lazy day on the couch, watching movies, eating pizza and interneting and also getting a great email from Liz who K now refers to as my “pen pal” haha
Miss- Not going to see New Moon b/c my date was too hungover to leave the house.

Monday-
Hit- Getting a very substantial X-mas bonus check!! Holla! The wedding fund will be getting a nice deposit this week!

6 Months!

Exactly six months from today I will be getting married! Holy SH*T! Where has the time gone?! I know from here on out time will fly by and May 22 will be here before I know it. Here's what has been taken care of so far:

DONE
-Venue
-Caterer
-Photographer
-Save the Dates sent
-Dress--ordered
-Shoes
-Pastor lined up
-Flowers--MIL will be doing reception flowers
-Mother of the Bride dress--ordered
-Bridesmaid dresses-picked out
-Jr. Bridesmaid dresses-I bought two potential dresses this weekend that I found for a great price. I will have the girls try on over Thanksgiving.
-Rehersal Dinner location picked
-Hotel room block reserved
-Honeymoon booked
-Registry--done at one of the two stores
-Invitations- picked out this weekend! We bought a kit with everything we need to print and assemble them ourselves.

To be done by end of 2009
-Book DJ-- getting a few quotes now
-Book Cake person--Kristian's sister has a friend, who use to be a pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton, that we'll probably use
-Book Florist for the bouquets--met with a lady yesterday, just waiting on her price quote
-Finish Registering
-Wedding Rings--plan to start shopping for these in the next month

Once 2010 hits we'll have to buckle down and finish up all the smaller details and DIY projects but at least the big ticket items will (hopefully) be taken care of.

I need a Xanax STAT

My whole life I’ve dealt with anxiety issues. When I was younger I use to get severe panic attacks which I’ve thankfully learned to manage however I go through periods where my anxiety level will be through the roof for an extended period of time. I’ve taken medication for it in the past which has worked but I wasn’t always a fan of the side effects or of having to take another pill every. single. day. I got off the medication about a year ago and for the most part things were fine however over the past few months I’ve noticed my anxiety level increasing again.

It wasn’t bad at first but now I’m feeling anxious ALL THE TIME. Even when I’m lying in bed watching t.v. I’ll have a knot in the pit of my stomach and my mind will be racing. I know that trying to plan and pay for a wedding on top of work, family, friend and general life stress doesn’t help. I hope that once the wedding is over things will calm down however I don’t think I can go another six months feeling this way without having a nervous breakdown. I’m a ball of nerves all day long, I’m constantly getting pissed off over little things and have to fight to not constantly bite people’s heads off.

I’m hesitant to get back on medication because like I said I’m not a fan of the side effects. When I was on it before it definitely relieved the anxiety but gave me a very nonchalant “I don’t give a F*ck” attitude about everything. Don’t get me wrong it’s great to not give a f*ck over every little thing but I found myself not getting worked up over ANYTHING. In fact my old boss use to question why I never seemed concerned when something would go wrong at work. She thought it meant I didn’t care about my job when in fact my medication didn’t really allow me to care. If a friend was mad at me I was like “oh well, they’ll get over it”. Not good. Now I’m on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. ANY little hiccup at work gives me an immediate stomach-ache. If I don’t hear from someone for a few days I’m convinced they hate me and if I don’t hear from Kristian right after work like normal I’m sure he’s been in a car accident. It’s not healthy.

So now I’m trying to figure out what I want to do. Do I go back on medication or try something else? Maybe yoga? Change of diet? Vitamins? All I know is I have to try something or I’m going to turn into a basket case.

Hunny-moon

So after looking at all our options we decided to book our honeymoon at a resort in:

ST. LUCIA!!!!!!!

We will be spending 7 glorious days at the Ti Kaye Resort! My brother gave us the option of going here or to another resort and after looking through both websites and reading reviews of both resorts on Trip Adviser we knew Ti Kaye was the way to go. It looks absolutely beautiful and incredibly romantic.

We will have an oceanfront cottage with our own private plunge pool, deck with hammock, king size canopy bed and private outdoor shower! My brother also allowed us to purchase the "Love" package which includes a massage for each of us, a romantic dinner for 2, a sunset cruise among other things. We decided not to go with the meal plan since it's more expensive than the a la carte option and doesn't include alcohol but he agreed to pay for our food and drinks.

Below are pictures I took off their website as well as a few I found posted on Trip Adviser:

(The Ti Kaye Resort)

(Canopy Bed)

(Private Outdoor Shower)
(Private Plunge Pool)
(Two person hammock)

(The Spa...I plan to spend a lot of time here)

May 24th can not come fast enough! I can't think of a better place to de-stress and relax after all the wedding festivities and celebrate my first week as a Missus.