So mad!

I just got an email saying that our photographer has had a scheduling conflict with our wedding date so now we have to choose a new one. 

I'm so mad! We chose the pros because of how much I loved the work of this photographer - the owner of the company told me that she was the best and she won all these awards for the state for photography. And now it's ok after we have already paid for it all for her to cancel on us with exactly a month left before the wedding?!

Wtf.

I'm hoping that when I talk to them more tomorrow about it they can help me put more...ugh!

Happiness is...

1. Not wearing a bra for an extended amount of time...ah freedom!

2. Late night workouts with my man.

3. A great manicure and pedicure. 

4. Catching up with good friends.

5. Cinnamon flavored ice cream. 

One thing I will always be grateful for...I am always easily excited about the most simple things. It makes life fun and happy. :)

39 days to go :)

Five

5 Things I Want to Share:

1.  Last week due to my overall abandonment of my laundry I decided to try on some pants that I hadn't for a while on a whim.  I had no idea they would fit.  Get this - I have been a size 9 or 11 for at least four years now.  Sometimes an 8.  These were a SIZE SIX! Woohoo!! Score! (and they were work pants - and that in itself should be an extra excitement because they are higher waisted and tighter on the bum so more of a challenge).

2. I had my makeup and hair trials and they went great.  I switched the people I'm working with last minute due to some disagreements and snarki-ness on their part, and I'm glad I did.  The two girls I have now are fantastic and I know they will help us look beautiful on the big day!

3. Speaking of the big day, 53 days to go.  Oh. My. God.  I just showed Dan the calendar - we are almost done February...then we have the month of March, and then just about two weeks.  That's it.  It's so close!

4. I have such mixed feelings about paying for this wedding.  I have always been very independent financially and have paid for everything of my own since I was in highschool (but didn't start paying rent until after college).  So to say that we are paying for it all ourselves is exciting to me because I feel a great deal of pride knowing that we are doing it on our own.  I also want to whine every time I see the Google Doc I have made with every expense that we have put towards this wedding (literally - EVERY expense down to the last penny).  When all is said and done, I'm so happy that 1) We are only getting married once because it's not cheap! lol and 2) We are doing it together. 

5. The smartest thing we could have ever done is Honeyfund!  The bridal shower gifts helped pay a HUGE chunk of our honeymoon already! That combined with a generous gift from our awesome brother in law/sister and law and a gift from my grandmother we have made serious headway with our honeymoon balance.  It's great! On the days that I am overwhelmed about what we still have to do or anxious about who is judging how we are doing our wedding (I try as hard as I can to not care, but easier said than done), I just picture us on the beaches of St. Thomas and St. John! I am sooooo excited for our first vacation as Mr. and Mrs.! 

I hope all of you have been staying warm and dry with this insane weather!

Getting my sweat on

So nutrisystem has been great for me.  A no-brainer.  I eat nutrisystem all day long and if I don't cheat, I continue to lose weight or maintain.  I have not gained at all since I've been on it.  I cheated a lot the first two or three months on it, so it would probably be more by now had I not, but so far I have lost 13 pounds with it.


I am officially about 5 pounds from my goal weight!


So now it's time to tone up!


I needed something new and heard good things about Jillian Michael's "Ripped in 30" dvd so I got it from Target a few weeks ago for ten bucks.


I tried it for the first time tonight and I loved it!


Here's the jist:


*It's 24 minutes.  That's it.
*It has cardio, strength, and abs.
*I actually liked it.
*I can turn on fun music and still follow along while not listening to her pep talk (I get annoyed with that stuff when I'm working out!)


Yay!


I'm hoping I can stick with this.  I have a spot in my office to workout in all by myself with the door closed, which really helps.  I'm always self-conscious if I'm in a main living area where Dan is around.  He would never say anything or purposely interrupt of course, it's just my own insecurities.


Anyways, wish me luck! I need to get back on the workout train and get some sexy wedding arms!


Which, by the way...


67 days to go!!


omg :)

Woohoo!

I've gotten a lot done for the wedding lately!

• I bought most of the decorations for the centerpieces
• I also started buying some of the decorations for the mantlepieces (there are 3 fireplaces that I need to decorate!)
• I got all the materials to make a card box together - I'm excited because Dan asked to help with a craft so we can do it together! 

Card box supplies!

This is from pinterest - my inspiration :) 

• I got the decorations for the table that Dan and I are sitting at as well
• I researched songs for our first dance, the song I'll be walking in on, and the song the bridal party will be walking in - pretty sure I know which ones but I have to finalize with Dan first 
• I looked into possible rehearsal dinner locations - turns out they are more affordable than I thought. I found a cool restaurant nearby that has yummy food (I've been there before which helps) and that's BYOB which will help us save a bit.  I'm waiting to hear back from them about whether or not they do pre-fixed menus for big parties.
• I contacted my hair/makeup lady to book the makeup and hair trial for me
• I started cutting the wine bottles for our centerpieces.  I finally figured out how to do it well! It didn't work well with the darker colored bottles, but I only need the clear ones for the tables anyways, so that's ok! I used the scoring tool I got on Amazon to make a light score on the bottom of the bottle.  Then I dipped it in boiling hot water and then right into cold water with lots of ice.  I repeated the dipping about four times and the bottle just popped right off! The scoring tool came with a glass polishing paper so I used that to sand down the edges, but it looked really clean cut! 

And aside from the wedding, Dan and I went and got our tree on Saturday! We also managed to put all the Fall decorations away, take out all the Christmas decorations out, and rake all the leaves on our deck! Awesome!

'Tis the season!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! :)

Upkeep

So I've been trying some different things as far as my beauty routine/regimin goes leading up to the wedding:

*I tried the murad facial that's special for acne prone skin from massage envy, hoping that it would be something that I could do a few times before the wedding. I was so relaxed and it felt great. But my skin broke out SO bad! It took me two weeks to get my skin back to normal after. I have had a couple break outs after a facial before, but nothing like that! Never again! (Ironic isn't it? A facial that is made for acne prone skin- my freakin luck)

*I bought the Mia 2 Clarisonic facial cleansing brush. I use it every day and sometimes even twice a day! It's wonderful. I have been using the sensitive brush head. I had a coupon to sephora and purchased the deep pore brush head today so we shall see how that goes. The Mia cleans really well and is waterproof so I can take it in the shower which is nice. I like using different cleansers with it to switch it up. While at sephora today I got the philosophy cleanser called purity which has wonderful reviews. So I'm hoping it'll work well in combination with the Mia. 

*i started nutrisystem. I can't remember if I blogged about it yet or not. In a nutshell: I have found my favorite foods that are delicious, it helps me budget my monthly food costs, and it's dummy proof! I am scared of the scale (I'm trying to be better about it now) so I can't give you an exact answer of how much I have lost but I know it's at least 8 pounds in the past month or so, and I have noticed the difference in how my clothing has been fitting. So I'm happy with that for now. 

*I have not made it to the gym as much as I want to...with work, grad school, thirty one, and wedding stuff, I just haven't found a good balance of time to fit it in. But I'm posting this as I'm on the cybex at the gym right now :) so I guess I'm slowly getting better! 

I'm really hoping these habits last longer than the wedding, of course. I had started the legwork for a lot of them before I was even engaged, but of course the wedding gave me a little push. 

I have a fair amount of updates for my wedding to-dos that I will save for another post. 

Have a great night!

DIY

So Dan and I are going to get all DIY up in here! Woo!

I found this great tutorial on how to cut a glass bottle cleanly and without a saw! Boom! Safe and easy!

This is the tutorial: http://makezine.com/2010/03/08/how-to-cut-a-wine-bottle-in-30-seco/
This is the glass scoring tool I bought on Amazon for $19: http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Green-g2-Bottle-Cutter/dp/B004ZRV3AU/ref=sr_1_1?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1377051614&sr=1-1 

This is why we want to cut wine bottles...

So I want to try it with a clear bottle and also a black/really dark one and see which one I like better.  Since my colors are gray and purple and the table clothes will be gray, I'm thinking it might look cool to  get a purple candle to go inside of a clear bottle.  We are going to do some testers so we shall see! :)

I'm excited! My ideas for the centerpieces are finally coming together.

I had a meeting with the venue event planner today and it went really well.  She seemed surprised (and a tad bit judge-y) at some of my answers regarding traditions that everyone does that we're not (i.e. garter toss, place cards, and cutting the cake).  Oh well, lady! It's my wedding! I'll do what I want!

So here are major to-do list items we have crossed off recently:

• Find an officiant - We found a WONDERFUL one! We love him!! BONUS: He's an elementary band director! This is great because Dan and I met in band! It's fate!
• Create a wedding website - Done! (I won't publish until we finish both registries).
• Finish Honeyfund registry - Done!
• Find dress - I GOT MY DRESS!! Wooohooo!! It's perfect and I didn't want to take it off! Yay!

Next to-do items:

• Finish BBB registry - we are purposely keeping this small to encourage people to go to the honeyfund registry instead.  We have been living together for two years and we really don't want more house items.  We would rather have an amazing trip together!
• Get hotel block and talk to hotel about room for me, bridesmaids and bridesman to get ready in.
• Take Engagement Photos - We are doing this in the next two or three weeks in Ellicott City. 
• Send out Save the Dates.
• Start DIY projects - wine bottles and chalkboards.
• Talk with a travel agent about honeymoon/shop around for deals

School started this week for staff.  Students come back next week.  I'm glad that I have the major vendor decisions taken care of for the wedding since I won't have a lot of extra time to do that during the school year.

:) Peace out!

Stoked!

I've realized how much I use "awesome," "excited," and "super" in my speech/writing.  I tell my students all the time to broaden their vocabulary, so I thought I would!

Hence the title..

Courtesy of Urban Dictionary - Thought this was fitting :)

So before I chose stoked, I had excited in mind and when I went to find a picture from Google, I loved the combination of them all!  So I took a screen shot instead. 

Haha I love this!
*note - I know the little girl in red is in there twice, but that's ok.  She's just REALLY excited.

So anyways, I'm stoked/excited/thrilled/pumped/happy* BECAUSE
We booked 2 photographers and a Dj last night!! 

Thanks to a fantastic recommendation from my future sis-in-law (shout-out to E! woo woo!) we found The Pros, a company that hosts several services including photo, video, dj, and photobooths.  Score! Their prices are absolutely unbelievably cheap, their reviews are are off the charts, and they had a showcase last night that included demonstration of services/products with prizes.  Sounds too good to be true, right? So far I'm really impressed.  I got TWO photographers (the main one has won awards for the State and is the best in the company!) and a Dj who told me she would make sure everyone left with a smile on our day! She was the only dj to have us do the cupid shuffle last night! She actually got us up and moving and she was hilarious! Perfect!

Ok so I need to go to bed and don't want to write too much more, but here are the major things left:

*Rings - haven't thought much about these yet
*Officiant - working on it 
*Dress Shopping - scheduled!
*Tasting - choosing menu 
*Tasting - choosing cupcake flavors -- MMmmm
*Engagement Photos - working on it! 


:) Have a great night/morning! Happy Weekend!


*Ok, just one more screen shot of urban dictionary - when I looked up happy. Bah ha!

Work it out!

So working with my personal trainer is AWESOME! She's really tough and I get a great workout every time.  Plus she's been coming up with a plan for me so that when I'm not with her, I know exactly what to do at home or at the gym.

So to give you an idea, last time I was with her I did a 5 minute walk warm-up on the treadmill.  Then I did circuits of a bunch of exercises. One was doing squats jumping up and down with one leg going onto one of those half ball things... see picture below to see an idea of what I mean. 

Then I also did stuff with the TRX straps she has hanging from her ceiling (I'm always afraid I'm going to yank her ceiling out, but she assures me that it's attached very securely).

See below pictures for what I did with that.

I pulled myself up like this - I REALLY felt it in my arms for the next couple days.

This was kind-of cool too...very controlled and slow movement.  My arms were shaking!

Then I did some lower ab roll outs with the yoga ball too.

I'm sure there was more, but I can't remember since that was last Thursday!  But anyways she does it similar to Jillian Michaels... 3 exercises in a rotation and then 3 new exercises in a rotation. There's always stretching afterwards and I always work up a great sweat!

Here's what she had me do tonight: 30 minutes on the treadmill at the gym.  I did 5 minutes of warm-up at 3.2 mph. (I always put it on the incline of 1.0 because I've read that treadmills are usually below the ground level at 0.0 so it's better to put it at 1.0 to be leveled out).  Then for 20 minutes I would sprint for 30 seconds (for me this is between 5.8 - 6.0 mph) and then have one recovery minute of walking (for me - 3.4 or 3.5).  I did this for the 20 minutes and then ended with 5 minutes of cool-down at 3.2.  It was really interesting to do it this way! I love intervals but I've never done such small ones! It made the 30 minutes go by really fast! 

Then when I got home I had to do burpees, push-ups, and squats with a dumbbell! See below for my workout to-do list (yes, I crossed them off as I did it so I felt good about it! ha, such a nerd).  (NOTE: I HATE burpees! They suck so bad!)

dell = Dumbbell.  Yeah, I'm not sure why I did that. Let's go with it.

Anyways, I've been working really hard and I really hope that I can see some great results!  Last Summer was the heaviest for me, and since then I have lost 12 pounds.  I'm hoping to get to my happy weight of fitting my clothes well and still having curves (I found this weight when I got off of the birth control pills for a bit - I wish my uterus didn't suck without them every month, otherwise I could just do that and lose the weight!).  To get to that happy weight I would need to lose another 16 pounds.  I think it's doable! I'm hoping that working with Abby can give me some great motivation and some new ideas.

I've read and heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  This will be my first week where I will have my two days with Abby and then three-four days of her workouts on my own. (the past two weeks have been hard to schedule because of schedule conflicts for both of us)  I'm excited to see where this will take me! 

:)

Wooooohooo!

Ok, so this will be fast but I'm just SO excited!

So I'm trying really hard to meet a HUGE business* incentive for Thirty-One (a $1,300 amex giftcard that I could use for my wedding! Um, hello! That would be a HUGE help!)

Well, I decided to host an online auction with a bunch of items that I don't need anymore for my display.  It was a great success!  With everything sold, I will be getting $178! Woo! So with that, and some cash I had from my party the other day with some display items, I can put it in as my own party which means I'll get the hostess benefits (at least $25 to spend in addition to the $200 I'll have to put towards replacing the display items with newer prints and all)!  AND it'll go towards my goal! BAM!

So here is where I am with my goal...

Between April and August I need to sell $15,000 in sales to get a $1,300 AmEx gift card.  So far, I have earned a $100 best buy gift card.  But I haven't redeemed it yet, because I'd rather wait until AmEx.  I am about $600 in sales away from earning the second incentive which would be a $500 best buy gift card, which would put me at $600 in rewards so far.  

So as it stands now, I'm about $600 away from having $10,000 in sales between April and August, and $5,600 away from having $15,000.

So if I break it down, I need to try my best to have at least $2,800 in sales in both July and August to meet my goal.  Normally, this would be fine because lately my sales have been around $3,000. However, the Summer months, especially July are really tough to get sales because everyone is away on vacation or they don't want to spend money since they are spending it at the beach.  So I'm trying a bunch of creative ways to earn my goal.

Here are my ideas to get more sales in July and August:

• Have an online auction - Did this! Success!
• Do another lotto game - the last one I did was successful, but time consuming.  But it gives me a $75 order and a lucky winner a great prize! - Thinking about doing this next week
• Send out coupons to past hostesses/customers 
• Reach out to my hostesses from last year to see if they want to host again - maybe offer them an incentive?
• Email all of my customers with a daily deal calendar and be honest with them about what I'm trying to earn for my wedding - I did this yesterday and I've already gotten three responses! Yay!!
• Try to focus on getting more online/catalog parties going if house parties aren't an option.
• Have a fundraiser for my school PTA in August (I wouldn't get much commission for this, but I would get the personal volume credit which means it could still count towards my goal).  - I have already talked to my principal about this, and she seems on board! We shall see!
• Reach out to my fellow direct sales friends and maybe do a swap? I host for them and they host for me? 

Anyways, as you can see, I am very motivated and determined! I just hope it pays off! If I end up with the best buy gift card for $600 that's totally fine because I can get a computer which I have needed for a long time.  And obviously, I'll still get the commissions which is going towards the wedding. But MAN! I really want that amex card! 

Do you have any ideas about how to get more parties this Summer? Maybe I could try and emphasize early holiday shopping!  Skip the store lines, and shop online with me! Hmmm....I'm on fire! :) Haha.

Amen.

*Despite being a teacher and working with spelling and grammar on a daily basis, I cannot for the life of me spell business correctly on the first try! EVER! Ha. Old habits die hard, eh?

Wedding To-Do Lists

First let's start off with what I have gotten done, so that I won't feel as overwhelmed! I have gotten some things out of the way, which is good.  I'm not anywhere close to being completely planned, but hey! It's a start.

Done:

• Chose bridal party - I have 7 and he has 4; we have a ring bearer and a flower girl.  We are trying to figure out a way to incorporate Codden (our dog) but we're not sure yet.
• Chose wedding colors - shades of purple and gray
• Chose venue for reception and ceremony - Overhills Mansion
• We discussed our budget together (we = Dan and I)
• Chose our photographer for our engagement photos (My co-worker offered his services for free! Woo!)
• Started researching and contacting possible vendors for flowers, hair/make-up, and photography
• Set a maximum guest list number - 100 
• Set up excel for guest list with contact information
• Created a Wedding binder
• Started looking at wedding dresses online to get an idea
• Started thinking about what the reception decor would look like
• Researched some bakeries in the area for cupcakes

I would like to get these things done within the next couple weeks:

• Finalize the guest list with Dan
• Finish adding the contact information to the guest list in excel
• Meet with a possible florist about pricing
• Find some more possible photographers and set a budget for photography
• Finalize the centerpiece design
• Finalize who is doing the cupcakes/put a deposit down
• Find invitations/save the dates that I like and set a budget for that

In the next month or two:

• Go wedding dress shopping ... oh god! I am not looking forward to seeing what size I would be right now.  I've been losing weight lately so I should be at least a little smaller by then but we shall see. I know it's weird but as much as I love to be around people I'm a little apprehensive to have a ton of girls/moms with me too.  Call me crazy but I also kind-of want my dress to be a bit of a surprise for everyone.  I don't want it to be passed around via cell phone before the big day so that everyone knows what it looks like. Maybe I can be stealthy and take one or two friends and then just tell everyone else the shape of it? Let them know I want it to be a surprise...?
• Get color swatches for my bridesmaids so they can keep their eye out for possible dresses in those colors.

I have a lot to do, but I also feel like I'm getting a lot done.  Other than major decisions, Dan is pretty awesome about leaving most of the planning to me.  Because I'm neurotic and need opinions I ask him about everything anyways, but he always says ok to it all anyways.  :) He trusts me.  Not to get too mushy, but the other day he said something along the lines of 'I'm just glad I get you. Everything else doesn't really matter.'  So sweet...and so true! At the end of the day, it's a celebration of deciding to be together forever and having some fun while doing so.

Will you be my...

So thanks to Pinterest, I combined two great ideas into one so that I could creatively ask my girls/guy to be with my on my special day.  So I wrote "I've got the guy by I need my girls" in our wedding colors of gray and purple and printed it out on cardstock.  Then I had a picture of me holding a framed chalkboard asking if they would be my _______.  I had to take three different pictures because I had three different titles.  I have two matrons of honor, one bridesman, and four bridesmaids. Whew! The one where I am standing on the brick was taken by my neighbor!  I ran down the street and asked him to take a picture really quick and we had a mini-photo shoot.  The photo that I ended up choosing, which is below, is the result of him going to his second floor window and looking down on me with the camera.  
Cute! The other two pictures were taken outside at school by my teammate.

This is what it looked like when they got the envelope either in person or in the mail.

 

And of course I had to change the last one a little to fit for Rocco! :) 

Everyone responded differently, which I love because everyone has very different personalities, so it was very fitting that they all responded in a unique way from each other.

• I'm pretty sure Erin squealed and said yes before she even finished opening the envelope! 
• Rocco forgot to message me his answer until I asked him about it, but to be fair he got in between traveling the world :)
• Katie said she might cry and gave me a big squeeze
• Beth and Dawn both said "Awww, of course!" right away  
• Jen called back and said it was the most creative way she's every been asked to be a bridesmaid! (Score!) 
• My sister Caitee sent a text photo back of her holding a sign responding back to my sign :) 

I'm so glad all of my people can be with me for such an exciting time! :)

Wedding Link Up!

.

I love link ups and saw this one on Erin’s page, and thought it’d be fun to fill it out as a fiancée and soon-ish to-be wife! 

So my wedding to Dan…has not happened yet! We just got engaged on May 5^th so we are still in the beginning stages of planning.

Here’s our history in bulleted list form: 

• We met in band in 9^th grade when I was 13 and he was 14. We dated “long-term” for three months! (When you’re that age, three months is a long time! Ha)
• We stayed friends throughout high school and always had an on-going flirtation.
• We “talked” and kind-of hung out/causally dated during Senior Week and a little bit into college. (Does anyone remember when people used to use the term ‘talking’ when referring to dating or flirting but not officially? What was up with that?!)  That didn’t last long though since he was away at Virginia Tech and I was home going to HCC.
•  We re-connected one Summer while he was home from college.  It also happened to be right after I had just broken up with my boyfriend of almost three years and he had broken up with his long-time girlfriend as well.  Hmm, fate? ;)
•  We started dating that Fall after I came and visited him at Virginia Tech.  We had a long-distance relationship for about a year and a half.  Then when he graduated he was home for two months before being offered a job in Virginia Beach.  So then he went there for another year or so and we continued the long-distance relationship.
• He finally got a job back up here and we moved in together.
• Five and a half years after we re-connected he proposed to me while walking underneath the Natural Bridge in Virgina.

So the details: 

Date: Saturday, April 12, 2014   

Location - Overhills Mansion in Catonsville – We are going to have an outdoor ceremony in a garden-like area and the reception will be inside a large room with wooden floors and a fireplace.  I like to think of it as your rich neighbor’s living room…it’s large but has a homey feeling to it.

Bridal Party – We went back and forth on this one.  We changed our minds about having a bridal party at all.  So now I have 7 and he has 4.  One thing we are keeping is that the bridal party will not be standing with us.  They will still enter before us, but they will go and sit in the front rows instead of standing by us.  We liked the idea of the ceremony being more about the two of us and not making the groomsmen and bridesmaids feel like eyes are on them too.

Colors—Shades of purple and gray

First Dance—We have not chosen this yet, but as of now Dan has more ideas than I do! J

Honeymoon—The only thing that we have figured out at this point is that we would like it to be a tropical type of place that is warm.  Other than that, we have not figured out the details. 

What Would I Change? Ask me next April!

If you’re interested in seeing my wedding board on Pinterest, go here:

http://pinterest.com/msstrunk/awesome-wedding-ideas/

Keep in mind I have been pinning ideas for my wedding for the past year or so even before I was engaged, so not all of those ideas are actually being used for my wedding! 

Ladies and gentleman, we have a venue!

Overhills Mansion in Catonsville :) 

The pictures don't do it justice...it's SO pretty in person! It's huge! There are TWO outdoor deck areas, a garden area, a wrap around porch out back, huge dining/dancing room, room for buffet/food, a separate bar area, fireplaces, and it has such a comfortable feel to it! It literally had everything on our must-have list, and more! Woohoo!

Centerpiece Ideas

So right now I'm playing with centerpiece ideas...

Below is a bunch of pictures that I either love, like parts of, or like the general feel of.

I have always imagined using wine bottles as part of the centerpiece.  But I don't have any use for numbering the tables because I'm not making seating charts.  Everyone will just sit wherever they want to.  I love mason jars with just one or two flowers also.  While looking online, I came across wine bottles with photos of the couple on them! Cute!

I also love the romance of a simple candle.  When Dan and I were in Virginia during our engagement weekend, we found a winelight at the winery.  It's a ceramic part that you put in the top of a wine bottle.  It turns a wine bottle into an oil lamp!  And if you look at the photo below, it comes in lavendar!  (In case I didn't put online yet, my colors are shades of purple and gray).  Yay!   I also love the idea of taking out the bottom of clear wine bottles and then putting it on top of a lit candle.  So pretty! Anyways, that's what is going through my mind right now.

 

   

We are going to see venues soon!  Our next step is to find a good credit card that has awesome rewards!

Oh boy!

(It would be 2014 for us - which THANK GOODNESS that's the case, because I don't like odd numbers!)

I was trying to get a free trial for something for school the other day and needed to create a new email for it

So, I figured why not? I'm going to have a new last name next year, so why not go ahead and make an email address with the new name?

I know it's so silly, but seeing the new last name in my email address is so exciting!

I made sure to email Dan asking him if it was weird to see my first name and his last name together.  He said he did a double take when he first saw the email.

Although I'm sad to see my last name go, I'm excited for what having a new name means.  It means we will officially be family and that when we have kids one day we will all be connected by name.  It's a merging of our families into one.

Corny, I know.  But so exciting! 

:)

We're Engaged!

Wooooooohooo! He put a ring on it!

So here's the story...

Thursday, May 2nd - I was a bit suspicious because I knew we had our bed and breakfast weekend coming up in a few days, and thought it was intriguing that Dan and my Dad hung out for several hours that night. Hmm...

Friday, May 3rd - We both left work in the middle of the day and drove down to Virginia for our trip.  This had been our Christmas gift to each other this past Winter.  It included a two night stay in a bed and breakfast and a wine tasting and tour at one of our favorite wineries in Virginia.  We got there late, met the owner of the bed and breakfast, found a spot to eat dinner, and went to bed.

Saturday, May 4th - We woke up and had a delicious Southern-style home cooked breakfast!  It was fantastic! We chatted with the other tenants for a while.  We went to the winery and spent a good amount of time there.  We also stopped off at a really cool water mill on the way.  We had a yummy tasting (we tried over 14 wines! this is why Virginia wineries are better! They don't stiff you on the amount of wine!).  We drove around for a while, found a place to eat lunch and made a quick stop at Walmart for some necessities.  We went to a really neat pizzeria in town and paid a whopping $17.00 total for a dinner for both of us! Oh my gosh! If you have ever lived in the Columbia or DC Metro Area, you can understand our excitement when the bill came.  Unbelievable! 

Sunday, May 5th - I started thinking ok, well so much for getting engaged. It's not going to happen.  Just another weekend... Siiggghh.  (Something like that).  We chat with the other tenants and the owners for a while and then get on the road.  Before we left, the owners told us that we should stop off at the Natural Bridge on the way home since we would be passing it anyways.  Well this was awesome, because Dan and I have been talking about going there for years!  So we stopped there and had a great time walking around.  I'll admit, I was still in a bit of a bad mood because I figured we weren't getting engaged this weekend.  I know that Dan could tell I wasn't feeling like myself.  When we started walking back towards the bridge (by the way this thing was over 21 stories high! incredible!) Dan started talking about how he was sorry I was in a bad mood and that he loved me a lot...well we say that kind of stuff to each other all the time so I was only really half listening because I was in a bad mood.  Dan had to physically grab my arm and pull me back towards him so that he had my full attention.  After that it was a bit of a blur and all of a sudden he was holding a ring in his hand and asking me to marry him!! He didn't get on one knee, but the way he asked was very him...and it was perfect for us! He said that I turned bright red and jumped back in shock! Haha.  He put the ring on and then we went to go sit down to process it all.  Then of course I started asking him over and over about whether I had said yes or not, because I really couldn't remember! Haha!

On the way back home, I called everyone and their mom and then of course facebooked it :)

See below for some pictures of our special weekend.

I am SO excited!