It's Time for Skirts and Dresses, Ya'll

Ok, it's officially Spring here in the Pacific Northwest as evidenced in our 80+ degree weekend!  Which means I spent this morning fretting (did I just say that?) over what to wear.  Because SUN + WARMTH= cute clothing.  Although, I do love me some cold weather sweaters and scarves.  Anyway, it's just nice that we aren't wading around in wellies and rain coats every  day now, just on occasion. 


Even though we did some major reorganizing and cleaning because of the move I feel like I should take the opportunity again this week to pour through my wardrobe and clean it up a bit.  That way I can see what I really need and what I actually already have.  With so many cute spring and summer clothes in the stores right now it's hard to resist the shopping urge (which I must, with a wedding to pay for and all).  But I know I'll still need a few items to spruce my wardrobe up a bit for the more pleasant weather and I cannot wait.


Also, it's now the season for pedicures so I investing in a few new nail polish shades and am excited to unveil my hot pink shade today... in  my sandals.  Because it's going to be 80 degrees again today!


Ok, so back to what really matters today:  Wedding Stuff.  BF and I had our cake tasting yesterday and went a totally different direction than I thought we would, but it's a good thing.  We tasted some amazing flavors and fillings and finally decided what we wanted.  I'm excited to see our baker's rendering of our design ideas later this week.  What was really awesome was that the baker we went with does cake tastings once a month with multiple couples so when you are done tasting your cakes, you can taste whatever flavors they had samples as well.  That was awesome because we ended up picking our top tier flavor and filling from someone else's samples!


Tomorrow we are meeting with a potential photographer and hopefully we will have that nailed down and can move on to finding an awesome florist.  If you have any recommendations I would love to hear about them!


Oh and I almost forgot-  we don't have anyone to officiate our wedding yet.  We have a guy we need to call, but on Saturday night I had a dream that I was at a work meeting but it was being held at an elementary school (for some odd reason) and we didn't have an activity for people to do so the school invited us to one of their assemblies for the kids and the speaker at the school assembly was DAVE GROHL and I freaked the freak out (in my dream, of course).  And he spoke to the kids about I-don't-know-what and I asked the secretary at the school how in the world they got DAVE. GROHL. to come speak to the kiddies and she said, "well, we just asked..." and then in my dream I had a revelation that I should just ask Dave Grohl to officiate at BF and my wedding and I woke up practically screaming at giddy and shouted to BF, "We are going to ask DAVE GROHL to officiate our WEDDING!!!!  I'm going to write him a letter THIS WEEK!!!" and BF looked at me like he didn't understand a darn word I said, but I didn't care.  So I may just do that.


So here's to a great spring week with more sunny days than we are used to!

And Then You Really Start to Freak Out

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm totally stressed out about the wedding and wedding planning and up until this point I've been relatively calm because I pretty much already knew what I wanted and got the BIG stuff out of the way back before the holidays (you know... the dress, the venue, the menu).  But for some reason this week I've gone from floating along in pre-wedding bliss to completely losing my mind.  Is this normal?  

Mostly what I'm freaking out about it how much it costs to actually have a wedding.  I see why people elope in Vegas.   Who knows why this didn't hit me back when I started planning.  I did an original cost analysis for our budget and it has not gone up, but I guess when it's a year out you aren't as worried about having that money. Also, someone needs to explain to me why something costs more when you put the words "wedding" or "bride" in front of it.  Suddenly a cake goes from $50 to $500 because it's a "wedding" cake instead of a fancy-could-be-birthday-or-maybe-just-a-special-occasion-cake.  Really?

Anyway, last night BF and I got down and dirty with wedding planning.  We started combing through our wedding invite list to see whose addresses we still needed (quite a few!) and who may have been inadvertently left off the list completely (mostly just a handful of folks we forgot we were related to, is that awful? I feel awful!).  We also spent a good chunk of the night picking out wedding music:  pre-ceremony music and processional music and recessional music, don't forget the first dance and the father-daughter dance and the mother-son dance.  We actually really enjoyed this part of planning because we love music and have so many inside jokes with good songs that we were laughing on the couch far into the night at our wedding party music.  

So here's what we've got left to do this week/weekend:

1.  Find a florist.  UGH.  I dont know why this bothers me so much, but it just does.  

2.  Find shoes- I may be going barefoot at this point.  I don't even know what kind I want.  Maybe nice sandals?  Heels probably won't cut it.  

3.  Finish registering at Macy's.  

4.  Pick our cake flavors and design.  Meeting on Sunday with the cake lady.

And then the next few weeks will be filled with:

1.  Getting the boys/men measured for their suits and picking the suits.

2.  Getting a dress for my MOH.

3.  Getting my mom and MIL together to pick our their outfits.

4.  Getting my mom and MIL together to discuss table decorations.

5.  Getting our engagement photos done.

6.  Not losing our minds.

I'm sure there is plenty I'm forgetting.  

So send me your sanity vibes and I know I'll be good.

Wrapping Up the Week

It's Friday!  And I'm so excited that it is.


This week has been SOOOO LOOOONNNGGG for whatever reason.  Probably because I'm a little grumpy and tired from eating healthy and working out hard... but, you know, Hawaii and a wedding are great motivators.  


I feel I did pretty well this week. I managed to get a good weight lifting day in as well as a  handful of runs and even tried Power Yoga at work (more on that in a minute).  I ate really well and mostly stuck to my plan (I did have one breakdown where I ate 2 Girl Scout Samoas, but I logged them in my food journal so I'm ok!) despite there being about a million parties and bake sales at work this week.  I'm not even joking.  About a thousand women are pregnant at work and due very soon so we've had a barrage of Baby Showers this week complete with sugary fruit punches, cupcakes, brownies, regular cakes, cookies, ice cream, you name it and it was there.  We are also doing fundraising at work for one of our charities so 3 different groups have had bake-sales and I have a hard time passing up some homemade goodies... but I did!  So I'm pretty proud of myself.  It also helps to know that I get a "cheat meal" this weekend.


Anyhow, so I joined the gym at work because it's just more convenient and they offer a lot of super awesome classes that I've always wanted to try.  I've done Yoga before and I even have been making it to the weekly beginners classes at work but I was getting bored.  I decided I would turn it up a notch this week and attend the Power Yoga I class thinking it would be the step up I needed to keep me going.  Well, I was a little shocked when I showed up to a HEATED ROOM, but decided I could handle it.  I was drenched in sweat 15 into the workout and was ready to fall over after half an hour.  It was challenging!  The instructor kept us moving pretty much the entire time and any time we held a position it was usually in a difficult pose that really worked you out.  I woke up Thursday morning sore from it!  But I did like it and I think I'll keep going- but this time I'll bring ice water, less clothing and a towel.


I've also been working on Wedding stuff this week, so mostly right now working on getting all of the addresses I need so we can send out our Save the Date cards and at the end of May our invitations.  I'm getting so excited, but also anxious!  I see why people elope because waiting for the day to happen is hard!


We are definitely glad it's Friday and have a pretty laid back weekend planned.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will get to BBQ!

If I had 3 Wishes...

I would use at least one to rid myself and the world of allergies forever.  The other 2 I'd really have to think about.  But Spring is finally here!


So the weekend was pretty awesome.  I love spring and all of the flowers and fun that it brings, and this year BF and I have quite the project on our hands with this new yard.  You see, the previous owners did not take great care of it and the projects they did do were done... poorly.  Needless to say we have a lot of clean up to do before we can even start making it look the way we want.


I started Saturday morning by taking a nice run around the neighborhood because it wasn't raining!  It was actually beautiful outside and I had to take full advantage.  After my run I came home and started cleaning up the yard a bit (meaning poo patrol) and then got the cleaning bug and started picking up other things from our yard like the 3 full plastic recycling bins that the previous owners left in the corner of the patio to rot full of yard clippings, leaves and junk.  After cleaning outside I moved inside and thoroughly cleaned our downstairs.  It felt great to start the weekend off with a clean house (mostly, don't ask about upstairs). 


After all of that cleaning I started to really feel my allergies kick into high gear and the rest of the weekend I have been in a Benadryl haze.  I tried not to take any this morning so I could function at work, but I may have to give in this afternoon.


Anyhow, we got to see some of our friends Saturday afternoon and do some shopping, eating and movie watching.  It was quite enjoyable.   Also, BF is the WORST at keeping secrets.  Here's what happened:


Saturday night before the movie we were hanging out in the kitchen and we had some music on.  One of my favorite songs came on and I said to BF "We should ask Steve to play this at our wedding, that would be awesome".


BF's response was so confusing to me I had no idea what was going on.  He scrunched up his face and look at me liked I killed his best friend!  Then he said, "Hang on" and jetted out of the kitchen, but backpedaled and came back, looked at me and took off upstairs.  


I was calling after him, "What are you doing?  What is going on?" only to get back a "WAIT!!!".  


BF came down a minute later with his guitar and played the song for me, which made me cry because it was so darn sweet.  He then told me that he had been working on learning it for the last 6 months and was having a hard time keeping it a secret because he wanted to be able to play it for me at our wedding.  He is just too adorable.  I reminded him that he didn't have to tell me the secret and could have just gone along with the Steve thing, but oh well.  It was a great surprise anyway.


Easter was amazing and we got to spend time with BF's family and have meal #1 and then spend time with my family and have meal #2.  Holiday meals are the best and the worst!  I definitely need to eat better this week to make up for it all.


How was your Easter weekend?

Day 2- Remembering Snacks

Yesterday, Day 2, wasn't all that bad.  I ate well again and remembered to journal my food and drink enough water and even managed to get out and run a 5k.  What did me in was not remembering to eat a snack when I came back from my run.


I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but if I run and don't eat when I'm done I get crazy awful stomachaches. Stomachaches so bad I feel like I have the flu and I'm going to throw up and I can't get comfortable.  That happened last night.  I came back from my run feeling pretty good.  I did a slower pace- 9 and a half minute miles since I haven't been running as regularly just to get back into the swing of things. I did a cool down walk when I got back and stretched and drank water and then went and showered.  After getting sweats on, BF and I hung out with the puppies on the couch and watched a "blah" movie that arrived from Netflix.  Halfway through the movie I felt so sick I was afraid to move.  After about 20 minutes of fighting back my vomit reflex I made myself eat some crackers and drink some water, which helped a bit, but I had that stomachache until I went to bed!  


So lesson learned, eat a healthy snack after my runs or workouts!


Today I'm trying Zumba for the first time.  I will for sure be in the back of the class tripping over my own two feet, but I'm excited!

Day 1 of the Freak Out Plan

So yesterday I did pretty well.  I ate healthy foods and drank a ton of water, but didn't have time to exercise.  I tracked all of my foods in my journal and remembered to take not only my allergy medication but my vitamins!  Score!


At work they are doing a running challenge on Nikeplus.com.  I joined so I would feel accountable to run a few times a week. The goal is to collectively run 4800 miles by June.  The runners with the highest mileage win prizes and get to attend the Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR which is pretty awesome.  There are some hardcore runners in my group, but I think if I take the steady approach I'll do well.  


Today's plan is to run after dinner.  BF and I don't have much planned for the evening so besides running I really need to organize our bedroom.  Since I've been traveling a lot I've just been dumping stuff when I get home instead of putting things in their correct space- not a good habit- so I need to do a little tidying up!


Anyway, just logging this so I don't forget what I'm doing!

The "Holy Crap I'm Getting Married in 5 Months and Possibly Going on a Hawaiian Vacation in 2 Months" Freakout/Plan

I am back from travels and so glad to be home in the NW!  It's still cold and rainy, but not as cold and rainy as it used to be.  Also, rumor has it that we are supposed to start warming up here soon!  Fingers crossed.


While I'm glad to be back home I've got some real work to do.  While out and about in my travels, BF called to let me know that we may be taking a family vacation with his parents to Hawaii this summer (June or July).  I am super excited about it, but also it means that I need to get back into bikini shape quick! On top of that I realized that I will have my dress fitting and tailoring in 3.5 months from now, so TODAY is the first day towards reaching my bathing-suit body goal.


I am committing to make healthy meal choices each day, to take my vitamins and supplements daily (I forget about those a lot!), to exercise in some form at least 5 days a week and to up my water in take.  I've started journaling my food so I can hold myself accountable and am giving myself 1 cheat meal a week (sound familiar?).  I know I can do it, but for some reason I just fell off the work out and eat healthy cycle I had going on and now it seems like this is going to be hard.


For instance, yesterday I decided that since it wasn't down-pouring, I would run outside around the neighborhood.  It was awful!  I felt like my legs were running through molasses- I knew I could go faster but for some reason my legs just didn't. That may partially be due to being out of shape and partially due to the fact that the day before I had done the stair-master at the gym and tired myself out.  I felt pretty defeated, but I told myself I would run again this week and it would be better.  I'm also trying some new classes at my work gym.  This week I'm going to lose my inhibitions and try Zumba with one of my coworkers.  I bet it's fun, but I bet I will look like an idiot!


Anyhow, wedding plans are coming along nicely.  We started doing our registries and have scheduled the cake tasting for a few weeks from now!  I pick up our invitations this week so I have started scrubbing through my list of addresses (what a task!).  More to come soon!