All Over The Place

This post really has no theme, just stuff that's running through my mind. You know...the usual ;)

I am completely blown away by how many people think they know what you should have at your wedding. My goodness! I guess I never really thought about this, but man oh man. Everyone seems to have their own little opinion about things. I'm trying to take it in stride and I know they think they're trying to be helpful. But I'm not sure I can be so stride-ful for another 10 months. Ha! All the comments I've received through this blog have been nothing but great. I love when people compliment me on my ideas (who doesn't love that!?), or they say "Oh I did that for my wedding!" because it makes me feel good that I'm on the right track with my ideas. And people who say I might want to consider this and that, or so and so, because those are really good ideas that I haven't thought of, and they save me money. But it's the "suggestions" I get from people that say things like "Oh you shouldn't do that, you should do this instead..." Ummm...okay. Did you want to pitch in for that? Because it's really not my thing, and I kind of thought Kevin and I were the ones getting hitched during this event - not you. Again, I know these people mean well, and I should just expect it given that I post it on this blog and through Facebook. So I'll deal with it. My mom says it's the same way when you have a kid. Geesh!!

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I'm am totally feeling Katy Perry's song "Teenage Dream!" I love it and I turn it up way loud whenever it comes on the radio. Speaking of songs, to this day, Usher's song "Yeah" still makes me want to bust a move. Yes, it's a few years dated, but it's pretty excellent. Pretty sure that song will be playing at the wedding ;)

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I have yet to post about our trip to Shasta Lake. Also, Kahlua's birthday was on the 26th. Some kind of mom I am!

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I have been completely slacking off on WW the past couple weeks, and I'm starting to feel it. I must get back on track next week. I only have 10 more pounds to lose and I'm hoping I can kick those 10 pounds to the curb by the end of this year. Also, I cancelled my gym membership (have I already mentioned that? I forget). I would never go, and I think I've gone maybe four times in the past five months. At the same time, I'm still losing weight so it seemed like a waste of money to me. So I cancelled and I now have an extra $70/month to put towards the wedding. Don't worry, I'm still going to take long walks each day to get my heart rate going and I've got to do a little weight lifting, crunches and push ups, but that can all be done at home.

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Okay, now I am seeking your suggestions and experience with these few things, so let me know what you did (or what you know of someone who did) for the following:

1) What kinds of gifts did you give your wedding party (bridesmaids and groomsmen)?

2) Did you do the money dance? I've been to some weddings where the couple did, and I've been to others where the couple didn't. Thoughts?

3) How did you display the numbers on each table? I've seen some things online, but I want to see if anyone out there has an idea out of the norm, that will go with our theme (black, red, white).

4) When did you begin registering for gifts?

Comment away!!!

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We've narrowed down our wedding party and I can't wait to let my girls know! We'll have seven bridesmaids and seven groomsmen. Works for us!

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I think my parent's dog, Hattie, is part human. She snuggled in bed with me yesterday while I was at my parent's house (because I had to be near the area for work), and she slept like a real live person. She'd sleep on her back with her front paws crossed over each other in the air. Then she'd turn over and put her head on the pillow and put her face on mine. It was kinda freaking me out. And she gets irritated with you when you try to move her when she's sleeping. All human signs to me! ;)

Oops! The cake!

I forgot about it! Amy kindly reminded me, and I know why. Poor thing kind of had a wedding cake fiasco at her wedding, so I know she is really looking forward to this part. :)

Unfortunately, Kevin and I don't really care for cake. HOWEVER, we will probably be doing something like this...


We'll get to have the traditional wedding cake top thing that we will cut, but I think we're going to go with cupcakes for the rest. In all honesty, I never end up eating the cake at weddings I attend. And if I do, I've usually consumed so much champagne by that point that I don't ever remember if it was good or not! Ha!

Therefore, we're going with the more cost-effective approach and doing cupcakes. I have a friend who is trying to start-up her cupcake business, and from what I've heard her cupcakes are to. die. for! And she also makes them up so adorably cute. So I'll probably be using her services for this project. We might do mini cupcakes and regular size, or all mini. I don't know yet, but this should cut down costs by like thousands of dollars! Score!

And to go along with the black, red and white theme, I was thinking we could have chocolate cupcakes with white icing and a raspberry on top, and maybe red velvet too. Here's a little something I saw that I liked...



Makes me hungry!

Ideas

Okay...this blog will turn into part wedding planning now that we're engaged. Don't worry, I promise not to bombard you with everything wedding. I honestly get sick of thinking about it all the time myself. There are so many things out there it's hard to decide what to do! Especially on a tight budget.

Since we've only been engaged for five days this is all still very exciting for me and I have a ton of ideas running through my head. I told Kevin that this week I'll probably be talking about our wedding non-stop, but I promised him I'd ease-up after this week because I would get sick of constant wedding talk too, if I were him.

With that said, I wanted to fill you all in on some ideas I've had.

Colors:
Black, red and white

It will probably be more black and white with splashes of red thrown in (i.e. red shoes for the girls, red ribbon for decorating, red flowers, etc.)

Wedding Party:
We will probably have six bridesmaids and six groomsmen. However, we might have more. We haven't really finalized the wedding party yet. I prefer to keep it at six but Kevin might have one or two more he wants to add. We'll see. And of course a ring bearer and flower girl. Oh! And get this! My mom saved my flower girl dress back when I was a flower girl some 20+ years ago! And this dress was made by hand by my second aunt (my grandmother's sister). I think that's so amazing. Of course we'll have to get it cleaned and probably altered a little to fit our flower girl since she's smaller than I was, but I love that that will be something we can use in our wedding! Plus, it kind of goes along with the dress I hope I will be wearing.

Flowers:
Red and maybe splashes of white. I don't want to do roses because that can get really expensive. I was thinking of something more like this...


Dresses and Shoes:
I have a dress picked out, but of course I won't be posting it on here! ;) But it's simple, elegant, not poofy and unique. I just hope it looks as good on me as it does in the picture. Ha! My mom, my MOH, my soon-to-be mother and sister in law, and my good friend Margie will be with me when we go dress shopping in November. I can't wait!

For the bridesmaids I'm thinking of black dresses that are knee length. I'm hoping that if they're black they'll be able to wear them again. And red shoes! Shoes kind of like this...

These aren't the exact shoes, but you get the idea of the color.

Centerpieces:
This part seems like the hardest part to me. There are so many different options out there. What I keep coming back to though, is something like this...


My vision here is a candelabra like this in the middle of each table, some red flower petals around it, and maybe some more smaller candles amongst the petals around the candelabra. I'm just hoping it won't look too gothic. I don't want flower centerpieces because it's a little over the top for me, plus that gets expensive. I was able to find these candelabras on E.bay for a decent price. Once the wedding is over I think I can try and sell them again on E.bay.

Decorations:
As for a pattern I'd like throughout the wedding, I thoroughly LOVE the black and white damask pattern (as you can completely tell from this blog background! Haha!). I was thinking this pattern on the invitations, place cards, and possibly incorporated somehow into the table decor would look nice. This is something I saw that I kind of liked...


Invitations:
This is another thing that overwhelms me. It seems like options tend to make me a bit nervous. Ha! But what I have in mind is something to the effect of the following...






I think you get the idea!

Photographer:
I really have no clue. We're going to be getting married in the Sacramento area, so if anyone has some good photographers in that area that are reasonably priced, send them our way! ;) Oh, and we're not videotaping our wedding. Sorry. Not a fan of that.

Hmmm...what else? I'm sure there's more, but this will due for now. This weekend we get to go to the jewelers to figure out my ring situation, and Kevin can also try on some rings so I can get and idea of what he likes for when it's my turn to get his.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Who, Me? Engaged?

Yes, that's right. It finally happened and Kevin and I couldn't be happier! Besides such exciting things as sunbathing, mosquito bites, kayaking, eating and drinking during our vacation, Kevin decided to pop the question completely out of the blue on Thursday, September 23rd. Even without a ring! Ha!

But let me tell you the whole story and I think you can appreciate it as much as I do...

Our first full day at Shasta Lake my parents, Kevin and I went to a great little spot on the lake and spent all day kayaking, sunbathing, and just plain 'ol relaxing! It was so nice! Little did I know that Kevin had planned on asking my dad for permission to ask me to marry him while the two of them had some time alone. So once we got to this spot, Kevin and my dad went off in the kayaks.

Here they are preparing to take off.

Kevin

My dad

From what Kevin told me it was a little awkward because it was so quiet, and he didn't quite know how to just bring it up out of the blue. But eventually he did and of course my dad gave Kevin his and my mom's blessings. From what I understand, here is how the rest of that conversation went:

Dad: "So what's your plan, dude?"

Kevin: "Well, I don't have the ring yet because it needs work done to it. But I was thinking that in a couple months I'd take her to Napa for the weekend and do it then."

Dad: "Man, screw the ring! You don't need a ring to propose! Just do it right now."

Kevin: "Umm....I don't know. I'd really like to have the ring."

Dad: "No, you don't need the ring. Trust me. Once you do it you'll see the look on her face and how happy she is and the ring won't even matter. Do it. Just do it right when we get back. Row right up to her and just ask her. Plus, the look on my wife's face will be priceless."

Kevin: "Well, we'll see..."

Kevin is now pretty nervous. When we left the day before for this trip he definitely was not planning on proposing!

So they come back and then my mom and I start getting ready to take the kayaks out. As we're getting ready Kevin says that I was being a little busy-body and wouldn't stop and let him talk to me (oops!). Then finally I was getting ready to get in the kayak and he stands in front of me (my dad is on my right, and my mom is on my left), and he asks me for my hand and holds it in both of his, then he says "Kaysie, I just want to let you know that I just asked your dad for your hand in marriage. I love you with all my heart " (my hand then goes up to my mouth at this point) "Will you marry me?"

I look at my mom and tears are coming down her face and her hand is up to her mouth and she's shaking. Then I look back at Kevin, and of all things I ask him "Are you being serious?" Hahaha! I can't believe I said that! It just came as such a surprise that I didn't know if he was joking or not. Then my dad says "Say yes, girl!" And of course I said yes, and started crying and we hugged and everyone hugged and Kevin took THE. BIGGEST. SIGH. OF. RELIEF. EVER!

Here we are right after he proposed! Nothing glamorous, but it's special to us!

And here is the location where he proposed. I don't think it get's much better than this! ;)

As for the ring, my engagement ring and wedding band is actually my grandmother's wedding ring set; and it's beautiful! It's exactly what I've had in mind and it has everything I've ever hoped a wedding ring to have. However, it needs some work done to it. The diamond that was in my ring is in my mom's wedding ring set. So my ring needs a diamond in it. And because the diamond that used to be in it was a round cut diamond, and my most favorite one out there is a princess cut diamond, it needs a little finagling done to it before it's presentable. It also needs to be re-sized to be a little smaller, and of course cleaned. But it's something that is very special to me because it will remain in my family for many, many years!

But my dad was right. The ring doesn't really matter. What mattered to me was that Kevin surprised me and the fact that he proposed to me with my parents present, means more to me than any ring ever will. That trip is going to be something that neither of us will ever forget. And since I'm my parents' only daughter, I think they felt so honored to be able to witness that.

Kevin taking a much-needed nap after all the excitement.

The rest of the day was so great. All of our friends and family have been nothing but super excited for us and it's made us feel so loved and supported.

We've been together for about 5 1/2 years, so this moment was a long awaited event, but the way it all worked out is something that neither Kevin or myself could have planned any better.

So, I'll hopefully have my ring in the next month or two, and we're looking at a wedding hopefully in July or August (depending on when we can book the reception - which we hope will be here). We still have to figure out the whole ceremony location too, but all in due time.

Thank you all for your sweet messages and phone calls. We both greatly appreciate it and feel so loved.

Let the wedding planning begin!!!

This 'n That

I can't remember the last time I took more than two consecutive days off from work, and it feels oh so good! It's amazing how much less stressed I feel when I can get done at night what I need to get done without worrying about what time I should go to bed because I have to get up early for work. Hallelujah! I can hear the angels singing now! ;)

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I am now going through some physical therapy to try and decrease the pain in my wrist, and increase it's range of motion. The other day they put this nifty steroid-inducing patch on my arm to administer a steroid ever. so. slowly. to the tendon that I pulled. Pretty attractive, huh? I kept noticing people in the train kind of staring at it. I would probably stare too.



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Kevin watched Glee and Dancing With The Stars with me this week! It was a miracle! Even though I think he only watched them because there was nothing else on TV that he could watch in the other room during those times, I think he secretly likes these shows too. Ha!

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As we were packing for our trip the other night, Kahlua would not get out of her little bag! She stayed in here for no less than two hours straight that night as we were trying to get stuff together. I'm pretty sure she has a fear that we'll leave her; never to return again. Obviously, that has never happened, but she can be a bit neurotic sometimes (ahem...kind of like her mother...hey! at least I can admit it! ;)).



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I made my parents a book using the iPhoto program on the Mac that documents their journey of refurbishing their Airstream. I got it last week and it turned out so nice! I was quite impressed with myself *patting myself on the back*. I can't wait to give it to them! And since it was so easy to do, I'm thinking this would make great gifts in the future for grandparents and such once we have kids. I'll try and take a few photos of it so you can all see how it turned out.

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You all know that AC/DC song "Paradise City?" Well....I've probably heard that song 4587693218 times, and I'm pretty fond of it. I like a lot of AC/DC songs. So as Kevin and I are driving in the car the other day the song comes on and I'm singing my little heart out and singing along to it "take me down to the very last city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty..." Come to find out...I've been singing the wrong lyrics my whole life! It's "take me down to paradise city" Boy did I feel dumb. Kevin made fun of me for a good amount of time after that. But in my defense, I never really knew the name of the song. Had I known, I think I would've been smart enough to put two-and-two together and gotten the gist of the song itself. Ha! I scare myself sometimes ;)

[Not so] Wordless Wednesday

Hattie decided that my brother needed some "help" with his laundry after he folded them and placed them nicely in the basket. As you can see in the background, Kahlua wasn't too impressed with her ;)

Baby Bennett

I've been following Adrienne's story for a while now, and their preemie, Bennett, who has been in the hospital for some time now, is not doing so well. Recently he's developed some type of infection in his lungs that the doctors believe to be pneumonia. If you'd like to find out more about what is going on, feel free to click on Bennett's Button on the right side of my page. I'm sure they would appreciate all the prayers and good thoughts they can get for Baby Bennett right now.

Weekend Redux

This past weekend went by so fast! I keep having to pinch myself that Fall is just around the corner because I just can't believe it! I think I'm going to decorate in a couple weeks. I can't wait any longer. The weather has finally started to cool down and it's been just perfect.

Friday: Kevin and I went to this new Mediterranean restaurant in town. It was interesting. I thought it would have a full-on Mediterranean menu, but it was more like bar food with a few kabobs thrown in and some hummus. The food wasn't too bad, but I don't see that restaurant lasting very long, unfortunately. The good thing was that it was CHEAP! So there's a strong possibility that we'll be going there again just for a quick, inexpensive dinner some time.

Saturday: We got up early to head up North to visit Kevin's family. His uncle was having his 75th birthday that evening. We got on the road, stopped in Folsom so Kevin could get his haircut by his cousin (who is apparently the only one that he feels can cut his hair the way he likes). While he was getting his hair cut I made my way over to Margaux's so I could visit with them and give Ben his post-hospital-stay-presents!

Is this not the cutest thing ever!? I about died when it finally arrived in the mail. It's so mini! It's a backpack and also rolls.

Can I just say that Ben is so ridiculously cute! As soon as I walked in he saw his new backpack and started pointing at it and got so excited! He's such a smart little guy and he's not shy at all - which I totally love. Unfortunately, it was a really quick visit, but it was still so great to see Margaux and Ben. I haven't seen Margaux since high school! So it was a great visit. Here are some pictures I tried to get of Ben enjoying his gifts.

Ben loved his little snack/drink cup. He kept trying to drink out of it but his mom needed to clean it first.

Looking through all his goodies!

Margaux and Ben perusing one of his Thomas the Train books.

Sorry, my camera isn't that great so the flash does nothing for Ben's complexion ;)

He was being so funny. When we put the backpack on him, he would just smile and turn around in circles. Haha! Too cute!

Once Kevin was done with his hair appointment we got some lunch and then headed the rest of the way up to his mom's house. His uncle's party was really fun. Kevin bartended so that meant I got to spend some good family time with his grandparents, his mom and his aunts and uncle. Here are a few pictures from the night.

Kevin's grandparents, Helen and Joe. I *heart* them!

Kevin's aunt Vicki, his mom, his aunt Lynn, Helen and Joe.

Me and my beau!

Me and Joe!

Joe in the process of stealing a kiss! So sweet.

Of course I *heart* this guy too ;)

Us again.

Sunday: After the party we made it back home to his mom's house and I woke up about two that morning so sick! I don't know what the deal was, but I threw up twice (sorry for the TMI). So I spent most of that early morning laying on the floor of the bathroom and the other part of the morning trying to sleep on my back in bed. Sleeping on my back was by far more uncomfortable than sleeping on the bathroom floor. Ha! I sleep on my stomach so as I was in bed trying to fall asleep I didn't have much luck. Needless to say I felt like death yesterday. I think I may have had a 24-hour stomach flu or something. Whatever it was, it wasn't fun. Eventually we packed up and headed back home and I spent the rest of the day and night in bed.

I'm feeling a little better today, but not 100%. That may have to do with Kahlua getting up almost every two hours last night! It seems like whenever we travel her schedule gets all off and she has a hard time staying on track with eating and sleeping. Haha! Sounds like I'm talking about a real-life baby, doesn't it? Well, she pretty much is our baby. So just go with it ;)

Tonight Kevin and I are headed to Costco to stock up on some essentials for our trip this week. I'm not really a fan of Costco. The whole warehouse thing, and it being so big kind of overwhelms me. Plus, that place can be dangerous! You could spend a lot of money there on stuff you think you need, when in fact you really don't, but because it's in bulk you think you're getting a really good deal. Haha! Somehow we have to manage this shopping while the 49ers play the Saints tonight. The Niners are Kevin's team, and the Saints are mine. 'Nuff said!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Giveaway!

Megan, over at In This Wonderful Life, is doing a great giveaway. If you're interested, head on over to her lovely blog and take a looksie for yourself. You won't be disappointed! :)

Photo courtesy of In This Wonderful Life

My Dirty Little Secret

I mentioned before that I'd show you what our spare bedroom/my closet currently looks like. So here you go...





And in all honesty, it probably doesn't look that bad to some people. But to me it looks like a cyclone hit the thing. Here's the deal: this bedroom is in the very back of the house so we never see it. I think Kevin's only been in this room twice after two years we've lived here. Ha! So it's easy to just shut the door and not have to look at the mess. Even if the door is open, you still can't see the mess from the hallway. Best of both worlds! So I'll usually let this room go like this for about a week; I'm stretching it at two weeks.

The method in which it gets to this stage is that I try my clothes on at night before bed (because I never have enough time in the mornings) and I'm just too tired...ahem...lazy...to put them back on their rightful hangers and in the closet. By trying the clothes on at night, I can have an outfit all picked out for the next day. However, I've lost about 15 pounds (I know, poor me, right? ;)) and so I don't quite know what in my closet fits, and what doesn't. So theres a lot of trying-on-of-the-clothes happening. Eventually it gets to the point where I can't find a top or a pair of pants because they're drowning somewhere underneath all this mess.

You know how some really neat people will always have at least one junk drawer that's super messy? Well, I don't. However, I do have an entire room! :)

And just so you know, here's what the room is supposed to look like.





As you can see the color scheme is black, white and purple, with black and white photos. Funny that this is my favorite room of the house, yet I let it go. Oh well!

Bloggy Tip

I'm so glad that you followers decide to check in on this blog and leave comments. It makes my day when I get comments from you all! I also love to reply to your comments from my email account. However, when I hit 'reply,' instead of seeing your email address, I see no-reply comment[at]blogger[dot]com and I can't reply. When I reply to other comments I can see their email address and the response automatically goes to their email. This is helpful because a lot of times I'm not sure if when you leave a comment you click the "Follow-up comments" option when you go to post it, or if you go back to check it, and I love to be able to respond to your comments directly :)



Therefore...if you'd like people to be able to email you back after you leave a comment, here is how you can change those settings:



1) Click on the 'Customize' link in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

2) Click on the 'Dashboard' link in the uppper right-hand corner of your screen.

3) Click on the 'Edit Profile,' which is on the left-hand side of the screen next to your picture. This will take you to the Edit User Profile screen.

4) Look in the Privacy section.

5) Check the box that says 'Show my email address.'

6) In the identity section, enter in an email address.

7) Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on 'Save Profile.'


When you add your email address into the above spot, it does not change the email address that you use to log in.

Happy blogging! :)

A Girl's Got to Have [Clothing] Options!

Can I just say how happy I am that today is Friday!? It makes me want to do a wiggly happy dance. We have a full weekend coming up, so I'll be sure to fill you in about it come Monday or Tuesday.

SO! Kevin got the new Halo game for the Xbox 360 which I guess is a big deal because a Halo game hasn't come out in a couple years or something. I really don't know, but Kevin has been playing it NON-STOP the past two days. Which I really don't mind because it keeps me from watching TV and allows me to get other things done around the house. Kahlua and I were a little bored last night so we played with her toys in the office. Then I discovered all the outfits I have for her! Oh my...

Now, for me personally, I don't like dressing my dog up. I don't think Kahlua likes it very much either. She looks so uncomfortable and just gives me that look like "Are you serious about this right now??" So the extent of dressing her up includes putting her in a little black fleece during the Winter to keep her warm. I like it because you can hardly tell she has anything on since her fur is black anyways. Plus she can run and jump and be active in it and it doesn't restrict her at all - like some of the other clothes she has.

This was when she was still a puppy, but you get the idea. Precious!

Where was I? Oh yes, we were bored last night and playing so I took all her clothes and decided to try each one on her and take a picture. As I think you'll be able to gather from the pictures, she was NOT thrilled about this production. But she was cute, and because she knows how to sit and stay, the photo shoot went by quick and we were done and all those ridiculous clothes are packed away so she won't have to deal with that again ;) Bear with me and the slew of pictures coming your way...

My mom got her this one Easter. It's yellow with a little chick on it.

Her Hawaiian shirt! I know Amy would appreciate this ;) I crack up every time I see her in this!

She even has a pink, hooded bathrobe! Pathetic...I know ;)

Poor thing. Ha!

Sporting the sailor look.

We can't forget about her 49er bandanna! Kevin appreciates this. I'll put this on her sometimes when the Niners play. However, when I have they Niners usually lose. Hmmm....

A pink shirt that says "Daddy's Girl." Awww!

My parents got her this shirt and the next one. This one is blue says "If only I could talk..."

I love this one! It says "I still live with my parents." Haha!

Too much? ;)

Oh my!

So there you go. Since I don't dress her up, I do like to have options when it comes to her collars, though. Every time I go to the pet store I'll look for a cute collar. I try to go with something that's more gender-neutral because Kevin has a complex when it comes to walking a four-pound Chihuahua in public with a pink collar and rhinestones.



Hope you all have a great weekend! xoxo