Little People and Ninjas

Yesterday we put up Christmas allll over my house. And then I wrapped a million Christmas gifts. Even though I usually have all of my shopping done by Thanksgiving, I never wrap anything until Christmas week. So that was exciting.

And then I settled down for a couple hours and watched "Little Parents."

And decided that they were the little version of Jon and Kate. But with 7 fewer children.


AND I saw an infomercial on this. I don't watch infomercials. I turn them off. But I couldn't turn away from this...


I sooo want it. And if it's bought on the promo site, we get 2 for $60! Who wants to go in halfs with me??!!?? Hmm?!?!?!

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

B's normal response to things when he doesn't know what else to say is "it happens." What can I say, the guy doesn't like to leave a conversation hanging. Usually this phrase works. Tonight, it didn't. But it was soo funny.

We were talking about Garth Brooks coming out of retirement today while waiting for our movie to start.

I said, "I liked Garth Brooks until he cheated on his wife with Trisha Yearwood."
B shrugged and said, "It happens."
...I quickly turned the death stare on him and said, "...it WHAT?!"
B almost jumped out of his skin, "TO OTHER PEOPLE! TO OTHER PEOPLE!"

Haha. I knew he didn't really mean it like that, since it's just a response he says to everything. But I'm totally holding it over his head for awhile. And telling everyone. Because I thought it was hilarious.

P.S. The Blind Side is a FANTASTIC movie. See it! Seriously! It could be the best feel good sports movie...ever. :)

Themes and Things

Our wedding gained a theme this week accidentally. Don't ask how it happened--I have no answer. Welcome to the theme.



Decided on the cake: 3 tier, and then 14 dozen cupcakes. They are cheaper than cake slices, but taste better than sheet cakes--plus I have a small cupcake obsession.

Ehmm.

On the up and up, we've also gained a 16-pc set of pots and pans, a 12-serving set of silverware, and two other pans. Macy's had a sale. My grandma and mom enjoy bargain hunting for crap for us. I don't mind it, of course.

However, we have 2 showers and a 300 guest wedding worth of items to register for. And most likely a two-bedroom apartment to put them in. They should probably stop buying us things! :D

Christmas shopping yet? I am. Presents to go: 3 and a half. Everyone else is done. And I'm out of money, so it's a good thing!

Plus I ordered the bridesmaid gifts today!

Let me see that tootsie rollll....

Camera Shopping & Baby Stevie Wonder

Friday night my camera died. It was a sad day. I've had that camera for 5 years. It was not an expensive camera: just a little point and shoot kodak easyshare. Within the first month of me owning it, Little Man threw it down the stairs. It lived with no issues. After that I let the kids play with it. Brady chewed on it all the time when she was little. I've spilled things in it. Not long ago I accidently took it for a swim while taking some photos. Last year it lived through many rough and tumble Kenyan children who have a love for taking photos, particularly with my camera since I was the only one who would let them touch their camera.

But now it's gone. It actually still takes photos, but the screen is busted so you can't see them. It was really time for a new one anyway, but it's just so sad. Especially for the kids, because when I get a new one they will not touch it. Sorry, lovelies.

I think I'm going for a canon this time. The only issue I had with the kodak was it's lack of close focusing. The canon, even the point and shoot, seems to do a pretty decent job of that. Of course, not nearly as well as any SLR will do, but B has a canon SLR and we really can't afford another one right now nor do we really need one. A point and shoot will do. I'm hoping to rope my mother into getting one for me for Christmas :)

Onto more exciting weekend things!

This weekend was my first born nephew's 9th birthday. This nephew and his sister will hereafter be referred to as Tile and Noodle. These are not nicknames I gave them, just for the record. Tile gave Noodle her nickname, and Brady gave Tile his. Other than these two I do actually call these children by what I call them on here--I hate real names, they are boring. Brady is called Brady. Little Man is called Little Man occasionally, but I usually call him E. I call Boo by Boo and Cabbage by Cabbage. Tile and Noodle have other nicknames that they are called, though. But I won't use those on here because they are too close to their actual names.

Anyyyway. B (who I do call B. there is another person in my family with the same name as him, and it makes it easier to use "B" to clarify) and I took Brady to this party for Tile. Tile doesn't usually celebrate his birthday here, as he lives a state away, but this year he did. Brady and Tile do not belong to the same side of my family: my parents are divorced and Brady is my niece by my mom and Tile is my nephew by my dad. Therefore, Tile and Noodle had never met Brady. So what did they think of her?

Instant Love.



This is Brady sporting some sunglasses she found.
Noodle is here and was thoroughly attached to Brady all night.
That thumbs up for approval? That would be Tile.

About ten seconds later Brady turned around and was showing her sunglasses to all the adults and they were telling her how pretty they looked. She lifted her arms in the air and said: "Thank you, audience!"

Brady will only be two years old just after Christmas. She's got the most ridiculously awesome personality!

My nieces and nephews are simply the best ever. Sorry, but it's true!!

The Hiney Flu

I went to lunch today with my grandmother and my mom. I am still laughing from this simple conversion:

Gram: "Let me tell you this funny story. You know that hiney flu?"
Mom: "...the what flu?"
Gram: "The hiney flu. You know, that one that used to be swine flu? That's what everyone is calling it now"
Mom: "You mean H1N1?"
Gram: "No, it's hini."
Mom: "Mom, it's H1N1, not hini."

I have no idea what her funny story was about, but it was absolutely irrelevant because my mom and I could NOT stop laughing before she even told it! Hiney flu! ;D

Another funny. My Gram and my nephew Little Man, who is the "aisle runner" at our wedding, were talking about the wedding the other day. My niece, Brady, is mixed race caucasian and african-american. Little Man does not have much racial diversity in his life and he's only 8, so he doesn't quite get it. What he does get? Dora.

Little Man: "I might have to help the flowergirls too."
Gram: "Who would you help?"
Little Man: (who is not great with names) "...that little girl. She's kind of brown. I think she speaks Spanish."

Lol! Gotta love kids!

Also, found some serving and place settings I do believe we're going to get. I texted B about them so he could check them out. What I meant to say was "I found some plates on clearance that are really cool." Apparently "plates" and "slaves" use the same numbers on texts, so what I really said was "I found some slaves on clearance that are really cool."

...that solicited a quick phone call from my dear fiance haha!

What do you think? They are color-pop-awesomeness, in my book. They are also $85 for 8 place settings and a serving set, which basically means "I want them, because when I get sick of them I won't feel guilty throwing them away and getting new ones."

Blahblahblah

Do you ever have those days when you are just blah?

Today and yesterday have been those days for me. I don't know why, there's no reason, I've just been blah. You know? You know. Right?

And I've been thinking. Thinking is usually where I go wrong--blah moods cause this and are caused by this at the same time, I've come to realize. Brains...they just get you in trouble.

But I've been thinking about honesty. I'm not typically the kind of person to not say what she's thinking, which is both good and bad, but there is a difference between thinking someone's shoes are ugly and thinking that someone is ugly. Not that I would ever tell someone I thought they were ugly, just that honesty has a different meaning and a different set of rules depending on what you are being honest about. ...that was a bad example. Did anyone make any sense of that? I don't think you're ugly, I swear. Hmph.

There are a few things about me that most people don't know. Some things a few people know, some one person knows, one no on knows. It's not an accident that these things fall into these categories. I put them there. These things are not "your shoes are ugly" type things. But even B doesn't know most of them, and I'm torn between whether or not that's okay.

It's not his fault--they are not things that would "come up" in conversation, no matter what the conversation was about. On one hand, I feel like these are my things and that they don't involve him and there is no reason he ever needs to know about them. On the other hand, I feel a little like "what's mine is yours" and that they do actually belong to him and that he should know them. And then I'm torn between the good that would come of it, like maybe him making sense of some of the things I do for what (now) seems like no reason, and the bad that would come of it, like B not knowing if he can/should say or do something that he would have previously said or done without a second thought because I promise that would happen. Sometimes I wish he just knew them magically, without me having to tell him. But then I start to think then I wouldn't really know how he really felt about it because that initial reaction is a true reaction, everything after it could be fake. But I almost feel like I'm protecting him in a way, too. That's stupid, I know. My brain is ob. nox. ious.

Does your husband/boyfriend/fiance etc. know everything about you?

I don't know.

See? Blah.

Engagement Photos!

We had our engagement photos last week with an amazing photographer, Bridgette Davis! They were a blast! I just picked up the disc today (which led to my car breaking down...again...but at least I got the pictures!). The CD came with 103 pictures on it. I picked 50 to put on facebook. I'll try to knock that down by 40 for you guys haha! It helps that I'm excluding all the ones with B's uniform nametag showing, and also that the uploader is being obnoxious tonight. :)

Thanks, BDphotography!

ROTFL...Literally

Oh the things your find at flea markets and outlets.

These are called "chuckle buddies." Yes, that is them laughing.


Need a shoe? Need a purse? Perfect solution.




As thought, I am completely over yesterdays fiasco. Thanks for your understandings! But, I suppose, as my mom put it "Honey, he's a guy. You can't expect him to get it without help."

And that, my friends, is why I love my mother. It's also why I suspect woman fall for gay men before they know they're gay.

Christmas gifts: 2.5 down, 20.5 to go. Current plan? Done by Turkey Day.

We'll see.

Because You Said So

So, this is going to be one of those times where I get whiney about B. Where I sound controlling, girly, and selfish. And even though I'll probably be over it tomorrow, I'm going to complain about it tonight.

Last week was mine and B's anniversary. It was Sunday. B requested on Friday that we not do anything on Sunday because he has PT on Monday morning. We never stay out past 1130, and when I have to get up at 5 I'm still out with him until 11 but...whatever, that's not what this is about.

So I said fine, and we made a plan on doing something the following Saturday instead. So we go out tonight, and B had told me earlier in the week that we'd go downtown to the river and eat and then go on a carriage ride. We get downtown, park, and walk to the river to find somewhere to eat. We try to decided where to eat and B says "Let's see how much the carriage ride is going to cost first" Okay, cool. So I say "How do we do that?" He goes "I don't know. I thought you knew."

Why the hell would I know that?

I even though to myself earlier this week, 'maybe I should look and see where these rides are' and then I decided 'nah, it's his plan, he'll know.' So we ate and went home (because what were we supposed to do? walk around downtown just hoping to run into a carriage? we'd have a better chance of becoming homicide victims than finding the carriages).

Not that this is about not getting a carriage ride because, even though the weather tonight was 100% perfect for a carriage ride and it would have been awesome, it's not about the carriage ride. It's also not about the fact that it was our anniversary, because honestly I don't think it's really that necessary to make a big stinking deal about an anniversary. It could have been a Tuesday for all that matters to me. It's about the fact that this was HIS idea, but he didn't figure it out on his own.

In our entire relationship, B has had to plan two things on his own: the proposal, and this night. B's idea of a memorable proposal is on my driveway at midnight with no one around, with nothing else going on cutsie or lovey or anything. Which is why I've never written about it. I love him, so of course the kind of proposal would never change my answer, but it's not a story I'm particularly excited to tell. On our wedding website, the "Our Proposal Story" section is still blank. It's the only part not filled out, because I can't bring myself to write it. I don't know how to not make it sound lame. Because there was nothing special about it.

I hate being the one to always plan everything for us. But I also hate when nothing is planned--which seems to be the only other option to me planning things. I want to know that I can trust him to figure things like this out. To do things that I don't have to tell him to do. But I also want to be able to have a conversation with him about this stuff, and not have him just "fix it" by doing what he should have done in the first place.

In fact, I don't even want to take the damn carriage ride now--I don't want to have to 'make up' for it. The only way he could redeem himself with the carriage ride would be to show up at my door with a carriage, in a funny outfit--which is completely ridiculous, and I would never expect him to do that.

I'm sure I sound ridiculous and whiney, but I really can't help it. At least not tonight.

I just want him to take initiative sometimes.

Let Them Eat Cake!

We met with our baker and chose our basic cakes design yesterday!


[this design by Carlo's Bakery]

It will be this sort of design, but in our colors of course. The flowers will be different (and not sugar, because we are not rich) and less "HI I'M A FLOWER"-like. We will be ditching the twigs.

We also haven't really decided how many tiers we're going to do. If we did 5 tiers, it would be 240 pieces. Our guest list is 330, and our reception hall holds 280...so we're just going to be a bit tight (or...we're going to kick people off the guest list...mean, but so true!). Our other option was to do a 3 tier cake and get some tasty sheet cakes for the rest of it (3 tiers=120 pieces) to save some money. The 3 tier would be cheaper, but this cake is great tasting so we don't really know what we'll end up doing yet.

Our flavors? The greater of the tiers (either 2 or 3) will be chocolate cake with chocolate fudge and fresh strawberries (I could eat this all. day. long.). The lesser amount of tiers (either 1 or 2) will be white cake with a tasty berry compote.

Not that I like berries...ehmm.

What do you think?