One year ago, on this night

As I write, it is 2009.

Is it me, or did 2008 just fly past us while we weren't looking?

Is it me, or did I say something similar last year?!?!

One year ago, on this night Ryan and I went out for a dinner. The entire thing was a suprise for me. When we arrived home, there was a special set up and Ryan asked me to marry him.

Last year, on this night, my entire life changed.

In one month, my life with change again. And I wouldn't have asked for any of this to happen any other way.

For the whole story go HERE.

Wish we were still on vacation...

It's been so hard to be back at work this week, especially the first day back. We weren't even gone super long on vacation, but boy do I wish I could retire! ha!


Not to mention my Mister is gone for the week. It's so lonely when I'm home and he's not. I guess what they say is true...absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Not that I'm not fond of him already.

And guess what...I'm going to see High School Musical 3 on Saturday, jelous?! :-)

Once upon a time...

image credit

...there was a girl who was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner all the while her soontobe husband is relaxing in the living room. He had the right afer all, he made the deliscous meal. After all the dishes were done and the countertops were cleaned, she made her way out to the living room to sit down on the couch. Before she sat down, the girl noticed a white paper like object peeking out behind one of the pillows. She thought it was her handsome young fiance's slip of paper. He was about to leave for the dry cleaners. When the girl reached for the paper, she realized that it was not a simple slip of paper, but a single white envelope containing a love note, better yet a card.

The girl opened the card, which was beautiful in its own right. As she read on, she realized that her mister had something else up his sleeve. You see, the girl had mentioned (weeks earlier) a funny Joel McHale from The Soup was going to be visiting a nearby theater. The young man got tickets for them to go see this comedian!!!

Can I just say the girl was soooooooooooooooo happy and better more, she loved the card.

And they lived happily ever after...

I want it

I found this over on Etsy at Nestlings. You should check it out, there are some really cute things. I particularly like this frame and the words that it has. I think I may have to invest in it to put up after (or even before now that I think about it) our wedding. I truly adore it.

Wedding {check}

Yay! We went to Zales today to get our wedding bands! What fun! Excuse the 'outlet' part of the sign...they actually had the ring that I wanted there...and if we could get it for cheaper, well then, duh?! :-) I can't wait for them to come in! I'll post a pic after the wedding :-)

Ode to my Bridesmaids

I thought that since it is getting closer and closer to our wedding day (can you believe half of the time has gone by between our engagement date and our wedding date?!) that I would do a little tribute to my bridesmaids.

Here goes...

Jessica and I met, well I'm not quite sure when. We officially became friends around 6th grade. Jessica and I spent many a nights on blow up beds, sleeping in school rooms. We traveled to quite a few states together with our youth group attending Group Workcamps where we would help fix up peoples houses that were less fortunate or too old to do it themselves. As teenagers, we spent many days sitting around her kitchen table just hanging out and talking. These reasons and so many more are why Jessica is my Maid of Honor.

Dawn and I were apparently in the same class in 1st grade...although I don't necesarily recall, we had some unkind words shared. We became the best of friends during 5th grade and were pretty much inseperable. I remember calling her throughout our junior high years for any tiny little thing, every couple of minutes.

Jenny and I didn't meet until I came home from ISU. I went back to work at the salon and she was working there. I'm not quite sure how our friendship blossomed, but it was a match made in heaven. We are very similar kinds of people which is helpful in so many ways. I would do anything for her and know she would do the same for me. Jenny is getting married just a few months after us and it makes it kind of fun being able to plan a wedding with your friend.

Stacey is my soon-to-be sister-in-law and I wouldn't ask for a different sil if I had to. Since the first time I met her, I have just felt so comfortable around her. She has the nicest soul and it seems she never gets mad or upset. She is a sister and a friend and I am so glad that I can call her family.

Katie and I have known eachother since maybe middle school. We had a mutual friend, but never necesarily hung out, unless you count the Little Miss Mundelein Paegent! We then went on to highschool and middle schools meshed together and Katie became one of my good friends. I love her for always speaking her mind. Plus, she likes me make me drink more than I should...haha! :-) I remember fun lunch breaks during highschool, walking over to Katie's house to hang out.

All of these girls hold a special place in my heart. I wish I could have 10 bridesmaids so that I could put all the women near and dear to me in my wedding party. I look forward to our wedding day for obvious reasons and I am just so grateful that these women accepted the invitation to support me and share our day with us. I love you guys!

It's been a long week

We've had a LONG week here. Ryan (I think I decided we can use our real names from now on) has had practice and then shows starting on Wednesday and going through last night. So, with our overlapping work schedules, we haven't really seen much of eachother in the past week. I MISSED HIM SO MUCH!!! So today, Sunday is our day together of just relaxing and getting to spend it with eachother! I am SO excited!!!

I took quite a bit of pics of the weekend...so you have some added entertainment!

Friday night, I decided to be ambitious. We had our treadmill inside (in the box of course) and I WANTED it put together. So, I set my mind to it at about 9:00pm. And...as you can see below, I DID IT, I DID IT!!!

It's tucked behind the couch. Not so bad, wish we had a 'gym room'!

It took me probably about 2 hours-ish to put together. At first, I thought, what did I get myself into, but it wasn't that bad, actually. My hands were really sore after putting it together though! I finally used it this morning and it felt good. I only hope that I will stick with it. I get bored easily. I also feel bad about the people under us. I figure if I use it at 'normal' hours that it shouldn't be too bad, right?!

Ryan's dad was in town, so on Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with him, my future SIL and BIL, their cutest little baby boy and Ava (my niece!). We had her for the day, well I had her alone while Ryan went into work for a bit. She was so good at breakfast, just playing with Colin (the baby). It seemed like he really liked her, he kept smiling at her and watching her. They better get along...they are our Flower Girl and Ring Bearer!

Ava and I ran some errands after we were done with breakfast, but not before stopping at Grandpa's to change her clothes. She HAD to do it, really, she insisted that we stop there. You see, she spilled on her shirt at breakfast and this little lady is one for being neat. I suppose it's a good thing, right?! Another added fact, she HATES when she has 'flyaways', she even calls them that. So she will put uncountable amounts of mousse in her hair until she is satisfied. She also LOVES to stare at herself in the mirror...oh boy, I have a feeling her teenage years will be hellacious!

She had a fascination with my sunglasses and would not give them up. So we had a photoshoot! Too cute!

Then last night, I decided to make some Cake Balls, which I found the recipe on THIS girls blog, which is awesome! FYI if you don't know, I'm a self-admitted BLOG ADDICT! I some how come across blogs and like what I read, so I go through the whole blog and read it. I LOVE it though. It's kind of like, in some weird way, you know the person. There are some great people out there and some great blogs!

The recipe for Cake Balls is super easy though. I love anything with sugar in it and thought these would be awesome...and let me tell you, they are!

You just bake any flavor of cake that you like, as you normally would, according to the instructions.

Then, while it's still warm, crumble it up in a bowl and mix in a regular size tub of any kind of frosting you desire. I used yellow cake and butter cream frosting...it was SO hard not to just eat the crumbled warm cake sitting in the bowl...I had to remind myself I was making something with it!

Then you roll it into balls, maybe the size of a tablespoon. I used a measing spoon...I couldn't find melon ballers or mini ice cream scoops anywhere?! After that, I refrigerated them for about an hour so they would harden up a bit.

Then I melted a package of chocolate bark. You can use your choice of any flavor or bark you want! The chocolate hardened fast, I was amazed! Take a look at the finished product...can you tell that I got a little lazy while I was dipping?! I didn't have a good utensil to dip them with...so it got kind of annoying. They are AWESOME!!! I just stored them in tupperware and separated them with wax paper. I have to say, they taste better the next day! MMMMmmmm good!





I thought this picture was cute. It was last night, before I took Mason out to go to the bathroom. I kept asking him, "Does Mason have to go outside?" Whenever say a word of interest to him, he cocks his head to the side. It's so cute...and for once, I captured it on camera! Of course, he was doing it to the word OUTSIDE!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

mmm...don't these look good?!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Nothing all too special goings on here in our neck of the woods. The high today is supposed to be 38 degrees! This is so exciting, considering it's been in the negatives. The sun isn't out like it was yesterday though, so it doesn't look very enticing here. My Mister is making me din~din tonight, but this isn't for any special occasion (I have been blessed with this AWESOME gift ever since I started working later hours...isn't he just THE BEST?! I definitly think so!).

You see...I don't really think that big of Valentines Day. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate it whatsoever. And I'm not going to throw a fit if The Mister got me flowers or a gift or anything for that matter...but I'm also not going to throw a fit if he didn't. In my opinion, I'd rather pick a random date out of a hat and have that be our special day for eachother, rather than have the same day that everyone else is joyously in love over (or the opposite, if you don't have anyone, and all depressed. Which I think is silly!).

OOOHHH...and for the men out there who think that V-Day is a woman's holiday, and think they don't have their own. Well, do I have something for you HERE...

***i will put a disclaimer on this one though...if you are easily apalled, DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT go to this website. FYI...this is only because the day is called STEAK AND BJ DAY. Some gal called in on the morning show I was listening to this morning and was going on about it...too funny!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

We picked a date...

We Picked A Date!!!

Well, we actually picked it last week or so. But I was thinking about how I have nothing to blog about and realized, duh Miss B, that's what your BLOG is for?!?!

~The day I will marry my Lover~

Saturday January 31, 2009

Hearts & Crafts

I know I haven't blogged, but I will be trying to, I promise...kind of! I am trying to find a good online scrapbooking. This one is pretty neat, but not as good as I've seen on some other blogs out there in the blog-o-sphere. If anyone has any ideas, please, let me know. I made a POSTCARD with me and my honey. I just want to find something that will give me a lot of options and help me out...ALL AT THE SAME TIME! 'Til later...ciao!