Wedding Season is over... on to Holiday Season!

On Sept 4th Jared and Mallory finally tied the knot. They have been together for 7 years now and like us it was just time to do it! Their wedding was beautiful in the backyard of Mallory’s grandparents. At first glance I didn’t think it was going to be possible to fit all their guests into that backyard but it actually worked out quite nice. I had an assigned seat on the grooms side about mid way back and in the shade, thank goodness! It was like 100 degrees outside with all those people and no air flow. She was beautiful and everything went smoothly. They had a moment of silence for her all those who couldn’t be there with them that day and the tears streamed down Mallory’s face as her dad passed away several years ago. I know he was on her mind that day for sure as her step-father, Steve, walked her down the aisle.

The reception was outside and it got kind of chilly as the sun set but once the dancing got started we warmed right up. Troy and I brought flasks and with a little convincing got Cathleen to agree to pick up my car from the reception and come back to get us once the reception was over.

Towards the end of the night Troy requested Jared and my song and we danced to Good Riddance by Green Day. It was a good ending to the night.

Then on October 17th Cassandra and Andrew wed in Dana Point. The ceremony was beautiful and was officiated by her long time best friend from high school Tracy. It was short, sweet, and very personalize. Tracy did a great job. And praise God that it didn’t rain through the ceremony although there was a mist that was blowing on shore.

One of the most memorable parts of Cassandrew’s wedding was the faux-to-booth. It was so quite and it turned out great! Now I kind of wish I had done something like that for our reception.

Sisters and Me

 

Me and the hubby

 

I was nervous about being a good MOH but I think that I did a pretty good job.  I tried to keep the Bride calm, make sure all the things got done that needed to be, and helped things flow.  Then I did a MOH speech and I think it was pretty good.  I always have to remember to slow down when talking because I become speed demon and no one can understand me.



Bridal Shower

The shower was a success. I think that it turned out super cute! Since Cassandra is not having a bachelorette party and I would not be able to embarass her there I decided to combine her shower and a bachelorette party with a lingerie shower!

I decorated the backyard of my parents house pink and black.

Here I am preparing the backyard!

I catered the event with help from my friend Albertsons.

In the invitation it said to bring a pair of panties in Cassandra's size but in your personality for a "guess who" game.  Cassandra had no idea that I was planning this game as I cut this part out of the invitation that I gave her.  The results of the game were hysterical!

The Bride has arrived!

Before we played the guess who game we played Celebrity Couples where you had to write down the corresponding spouse.  For instance it said Romeo and you had to write in Juliet.  We also had the memory game which you had to write down in as great of detail as possible all the items Cassandra was wearing after she snuck out of the shower. We had the thank you card envelope drawing and the guessing game to see how many Hersey Kisses were in the jar.  The answer sheets said "How many times do you think Andrew and Cassandra will kiss on their honeymoon?"

Between the games I read Cassandra a little poem identifying all the stages of her life in which she would need a special pair of underwear.  While reading the poem Heather pulled out the panties and hung them on our boa clothes line.  Immediately Cassandra got red in the face and started to drink her wine must faster.  Here are the results:

After all the games Cassandra opened all her gifts and she got an array of gifts from naughty gifts from ConRev to sexy lingerie to good ol' cotton PJs.

Between the "Guess Who" panty game, my panty party line, and her gifts she probably ended up with 30+ pairs of panties.  She is definatley stocked up for her honeymoon!

Here we are all holding the panties we gave her for our guess who game!

Cassandra's Gma had the best pair!!

And here is a picture for the scrapbook of all the ladies that gathered to honor Cassandra as the bride to be!

Congrats Cassandra on your upcoming wedding and congrats to Andrew who gets to see Cassandra model all of her new gifts :-)

Styx and the OC Fair

Classic rock and I mean classic . Troy and I saw Styx in concert at the Pacific Ampatheater at the Orange County Fair. We had so much fun!

When we first got there we were on a mission to just eat. We had already accepted that the fair food was completely unhealthy and outrageously expensive but we were there on a mission. First we got the Austrian Fried Potatoes with ranch dressing. They were to DIE for! Then we headed further down food row and Troy got the turkey leg and I got the 16” weiner with peppers and onions. This thing was huge and I didn’t end up finishing it.

After dinner we walked around and window shopped. We bought some candy from one of the vendors to munch on at the concert. After window shopping we rested our feet and our bellies and sat on a bench by the bathroom and watched all the people go by. The fair is second best for people watching next to Disneyland. We had so much fun just sitting there.

Then it was off to the concert. Styx came out and did an awesome show. It was great because there was no boring opening band. It was straight to the main event. It was funny because the lead singer announced one of the songs as a hit in 1976… clearly before our parents even graduated high school. We were surrounded by a mix of ages, to my surprise, but mostly they were all old people.

Picture from Our Seat

We have another set of tickets to go to the fair again. I think we are going to hold off going until Heather and Joe go so we can have another fun fair feast and all share greasy, yummy, and delicious food! I still want to try the deep fried butter which evidently is shoved into something that resembles a chirro.

All in all it was an awesome night with my awesome hubby!

Debbie Downer - No Excitement in Life

It is time for new goals in my life. Every day seems daunting and such a downer. The routine has become so routine and the spice of life is slowly being lost by the moment. Work is a bummer and with little to no fun spending money the spice of life in my social life is slim to none. So it is time to set some new goals. When we got engaged my goal and focus was on the wedding. I spent hours of endlessly researching details for the wedding. With the wedding and honeymoon over the excited balloon has been popped. I need new goals with new things to look forward to.

So some new goals that I want to accomplish. I want to start scrapbooking again. It is very therapeutic for me and I have all the supplies to do it with the exception of the actual photos that I would like to memorialize. My scrapbook is only done through June 2005 after high school graduation. Now that I am over 5 years behind in my scrapping I am going to go through the events that are in line to scrap and choose only the important big events to add. That way I can catch up faster. I want to be up to date through the year 2005 by the end of August. If I set dates for myself than maybe I will actually get around to doing it.

Troy and I need to decide how we are going to celebrate our first anniversary as a married couple! I am pretty excited about it actually. First I was thinking about recreating our honeymoon. The hotel that we stayed at gives 1 free night if you go back to celebrate your anniversary. Then I thought that that is too expensive and if we travel big again that I want to go on a new adventure somewhere else where we haven’t been.

Then my next idea was to go on a cruise! I have heard mixed reviews on the whole idea since you are “trapped” on a boat and you don’t get to do as much exploring as if you stayed at a resort and the time that you are actually docked is pretty short. Then others say that it is great and it is like a hotel with an awesome view of the water, LOL. So that is still an option.

Then the frugal house-envious me wants to do something even smaller and use all the money to be spent on a vacation toward a down payment for our first house. Now I realize that I can not be so stingy with our money that we do not allow ourselves to go out and have a good time and enjoy life. At the same time I really want to own our own place, whether it is a condo or a house or whatever we can find but I really want to move into a place, plant some roots, start a family, have as many pets as I want and be able to decorate, renovate or destroy as I please without worrying about what anyone else wants.

So I am left between all kinds of options so it is also a goal and an exciting thing to look forward to is the celebration of our 1 year anniversary in 3 months and 5 days!!


Jared and Mallory are getting married in September and I am very excited for them. They are going to be surrounded by family, friends, and love. I can’t wait to celebrate with them and actually have a drink at this wedding. Since I didn’t even drink at my own it will be nice to be out the outside this time and be able to take pictures and enjoy all the festivities without being pulled in a million different directions.

We also are looking forward to the Brad Paisley concert in September. It is on my bucket list to see him in concert and if we are really lucky then he might just sing our wedding song. Now that would just be absolutely awesome and would be a night I would never forget. I still need to find a hotel for that night and scoop out the area since it is all the way down in the San Diego area. It will be a nice weekend away.

After that we have Cassandra and Andrew’s wedding. I’m excited about this one too! I got my dress and shoes and now all I need are some bomb accessories and I will be ready to rock it. Their wedding is going to be very different from Jared and Mallory’s with a totally different feel but I think it is going to be just as pretty and full of love.

I guess I have more to look forward to than I realized now that I actually wrote some of the things down. The daily grind is just really grinding on me these days and the positive, upbeat, and eager Melissa has disappeared. Work used to be fun and interesting and I actually enjoyed myself. These days it is a total drag and I miss the more family oriented, less corporate commercial, office environment that we used to work in. So with that daily grind and then being broke all the time I am starting to just get worn out.

On a positive note, Troy and I are really hitting the grind on paying off debt. We are trying to put as much extra money towards credit card debt as possible to get them paid down and eventually off. That way we can really start putting money into savings. When the stupid Nissan is paid off (last payment on 9/18 whoot whoot!!) then that extra money will go to paying off even more debt faster and eventually will be put into savings. We are used to living “without it” so it won’t be as hard not to spend it on frivolous things.

Adulthood – who would have thought it would be like this? I rushed to grow up and look where I am at? After spending some time with Amy we were talking about how old we are and how her kid is about to go into kindergarten. Where did the time go?

Bridal Showers

A few Saturdays ago I went to Mallory's bridal shower. It is surreal to think that soon both of us will soon be married to our high school sweethearts. It is crazy to think that once apon a long time ago all 4 of us marched on the same field together in highschool. Who would have known that the girl that I nicked name Booger would be marrying one of my oldest and dearest friends in nearly 4 weeks? I am so happy for them and I hope that they have a long and happy journey in life together.

They are getting married at Mallory's grandparents home in their backyard. The house and the setting is beautiful but a little bit on the small side. I overheard one of the bridesmaids who said that there is going to be assigned seating for the ceremony and 20-30 guests will need to stand. At first I was a little shocked to hear the idea but thinking about it more it makes total sense. I am just hoping that I am one of the honored guests to get a seat. I am the best man's wife and one of the original 3.

After leaving the bridal shower it is starting to make me more excited and a little anxious for the shower that I putting on in 4 weeks. I thought I had the whole plan all figured out but I've come across a couple of kinks that I still need to work out. One big kink was the location. I was not really excited about a lingerie shower in a park or a resturant. I would rather have it in someone's backyard like mine was. I was a little worried about the games too but after Mallory's shower with only one participating game, one necklace "don't say the word" game and one raffle it seemed perfect. It wasn't very dragged out and the majority of the people knew each other (except me) so they didn't need a bunch of break the ice games.

My shower plans are coming right along. I am getting very excited for Cassandra's wedding. I have my dress and shoes and now just need some bomb accessories. I am looking for some great earrings and a great bangle of some sort.

Confidentiality - Is this now a foreign idea?

With the advancement of the Internet, with Facebook, MySpace, and blogging, what can you really keep confidential these days? Even if you don't participate in these website you most likely are already on them. With Facebook and Myspace your friends and family might have posted an unattractive or embarrassing photo of you on their page without your knowledge or permission. Young teens post their address and phone numbers on their webpages to tell all their friends of their new number or to "call me" but not only are they publicizing this to their friends but also to the entire world. How much of your life is really confidential? You can Google search a name and find out where they live, where they work, where they were born. You can go onto Superior Court websites now and search peoples names and know how many tickets they have had, what they were for, or if they have been convicted of other criminal charges. How can we escape and start life over with a "clean slate" or keep our lives to ourselves if they are blasted all over the internet without our permission or knowledge?

Selling The Left Overs

Today is bitter sweet. I sold my plate chargers from my wedding tonight. I am happy to see them leave my garage and go on to another bride on a tight budget but sad to think that another piece of my wedding is gone. I spent nearly 2 years planning and now that it is over and I am slowly disassembling the pieces it is kind of sad.

First I sold my aisle runner vases. Then I sold what was left of my aisle runner itself. And tonight I sold my plate chargers. It is nice to get some money back from the purchases and to be help other brides who were deal hunters just like me. Now the next big item that I need to get rid of is my dang wedding dress that I didn't wear after all, dress #1. I am keep posting it on craigslist and get a couple of hits and then nothing. I am going to keep trying though. I mean, what am I going to do with it? I have no use for it and no reason to keep it considering I didn't even wear it. I am about to just give it away. Free dress. Please come take it, I need the closet space. Ok, well I am not that desperate just yet but I am sure getting to that point. I have been storing that thing for 3 years now! Know anyone that wants a dress??

Ping Pong

So my husband tends to have a bit of an addictive personality. After he got the Wii for Christmas it was all about the Wii everyday. I watched countless matches of Wii frisbee golf between Joe and Troy. Then they decided that it was time to be more active and pursued actual frisbee golf... most boring game ever! I attemped to play one time with Joe, Troy, Cassandra and Heather. I think I walked and talked more than I actually threw the dang frisbee. Troy and Joe were constantly at the course.

Now they are obsessed with ping pong. I should be happy that he is staying active and is pursuing a hobby that burns major calories, right? Well after over a month with ping pong this and ping pong that I am ping ponged out! It is nice that Troy gets to work out, hang out, and do some male bonding with my dad and all but it would be nice if he wanted to actually spend some time at home a couple of nights this weeks so we could bond.

If Troy had it his way this is what I would look like and be doing for the rest of our lives....

I am trying to be supportive of this new healthy hobby. I must say that it has been nice to be able to stay home and have some alone time while the boys are at my house playing. I get to clean, watch TV, or sleep in peace for a solid amount of hours. It definately has been nice. My new wish is that he is as obsessed with me and our relationship as he is with the Wii, frisbee golf and now ping pong.

Charlie

I love my dog. He is like my first child. I look forward to seeing him when I get home and I love cuddling up with him. He is so mellow and fun to just hang out with. Joe mentioned last night that when he first moved in that Charlie wanted nothing to do with him. He didn't get excited when Joe came home and wouldn't go to him when called. Now though Charlie gets excited when Joe comes to the door and in the morning when he knows that I am leaving he will even scratch at Joe's door to be let in to cuddle with him. It is like Joe has joined Charlie's pack.

He is like a little person. He sleeps in the bed with us and he lays his head on the pillows and stretches out like an old man. I don't have any pictures of it but I am going to try to capture the cuteness the next time I have a camera handy. He is getting old and we are not sure exactly how old he is so I am starting to really cherish the time that we spend together. When we first rescued him from the pound his face was all black in his muzzle. Now that he is older he is starting to turn all grey. Mom just loves him too. Every time Charlie comes over to visit he gets all kinds of treats: cheese, beef jerky, sandwhich meat, whatever she can find for him!

Mom and Dad had gone with Gpa to some steakhouse and they brought home leftovers. While Troy and I were playing ping pong Charlie "found" these bones. He chomped on these things for probably a good hour. He even brought it to the grass so he could sun while enjoying his treat.

TTC - 38 Days

Concert of Hope

Last night was the Concert of Hope. First of all I am so glad that it is over. I am excited to get back to some form of normal at church. I am hoping the flaired up egos and chest pounding will be over.

The concert turned out quite nicely. I was very suprised on how many people actually turned out. Even with Mom's heavy promotion I think the idea of a Christian concert from the get go is a turn off. Mike White's testimony was riveting. It brought tears to my eyes and burned a message into my soul. He is such a wonderful speaker and I hope that his message touched others, non-believers, as much as it touched me.

Troy had yesterday off so he was able to help start setting up the gig at Farivew Park at 12:00 pm. He helped with the sound board, stage set up, and kind of a general goffer helper.

Troy in the sound tent.

Jadon Lavik was a great singer. I was disappointed though because even though he was a great singer he plays more relaxing, driving in your car in traffic, kind of music. I was hoping for something a little more up beat and something we could sing along with. I liked the idea of having a Christian artist play non-secular songs to draw people to the concert and then have Mike White have his motivational speech. I think the turn out would have been better.

Jadon Lavik and his Band

My whole part in this concert was coordinating the concessions. I booked Taco Dawgs with a recommendation from one of the other members of the church and they were a hit! I had told him that I didn't know how the turn out was going to be. Apparently we didn't disappoint because he ran out of french fries about 1/2 way through the concert. Since I had been discouraged by the planning process I stopped looking for vendors after Taco Dawg was booked. I had orginally thought it would be nice to have maybe a kettle corn vendor or a cotton candy or something of that nature. After all the miscommunication happened I threw in the towel and let it be.

Fox setting up his truck.

They had a prayer tent set up for anyone that wanted to pray with someone or who was a non-believer looking for guidance and answers. There were lots of people available to help and they set up Troy's dad's pop-up as their little headquarters. From what I heard there were some people who utilized the people there to pray with and for them and there were also people who dropped their name into the box for more information.

Prayer Tent

If there is a next year I definately hope that some things will be changed. I think that the people in charge of this event don't take me seriously. I had good ideas but they don't trust be either because I am too young or have not "proven myself" to the elders. Whatever it is I am just glad that this concert was successful from what I can tell and that it is finally over!

Crash (The Movie)

So as Troy and I are trying to get a hold of our fiances and try to pay off all our consumer debt and start saving for our home we have cancelled cable. Initially I was shocked and appalled by the suggestion but it has been working out. We are saving $80+ a month on cable and since have signed up for Netflix. They have a new feature where we can watch some movies instantly from their website or from our Wii. Then of course we have the standard DVDs that get mailed to our home. This week we got Crash.

So last night I watched Crash while hanging out in bed waiting for my husband to join me. It was an intense movie! I am usually not one for anything that keeps me on the edge of my seat (or bed) but I am glad I watched it. It displays so perfectly that we may be a country based on "equality" but racism and prejudice still is happening everywhere around us. People are still bought and bribed for advancement in society. It really impacted me and I have been thinking about it since. I even dreamed about it!

Not only is the lack of cable saving us money but it is also drawing us closer. We have more time to do things together without being zoned out at the TV. We started playing card games, sitting on the balcony to eat dinner, talk, play cards, and sometimes Troy and Joe sit out there to smoke hookah.

Family Camping

We didn't know what to expect when we were all headed to San Onofre State Beach to camp. I guess I had in mind that it would be something like San Clemente State Beach when we camped there a few years back. When we got there we discovered something very different!

Troy got off work late so that was an unexpected obstacle. We ended up taking Charlie Brown with us camping as well. I wasn't very excited with the thought that we would have to take him because I wanted a relaxing weekend. I guess this goes along with the idea of enjoying my "child-free" days before I have the extra responsibility. With a failed attempt at a sleep over at Dex's house I picked Charlie up Friday afternoon and he headed out with us.

We made it!! Better late than never!!

Once we got there we had to access the situation and it was looking pretty bad. We hadn't anticipated what we saw... very small camping spots. Not only was there less room than anticipated but we had 5 tents for 8 people, yes I said it correctly 5 tents!

So here we are all set up for camping. Notice that all the tents are sitting on asphalt... our parking spots. Oh yes! ASPHALT! William ended up moving his maroon tent onto the dirt shortly after we decided that it was just too cramped. We have a 6 man tent so ours is the mansion in the back. For some reason no one wanted to sleep in the same tent as us. Apparently I am not cool anymore or something?

In the picture above you can see me sitting in a chair with about 8 feet of dirt in front of me, then curb, then tents. That's about all the nature that we had. Behind us we had brush to the end of the cliff and then the ocean. If you take a close look in this picture you will see the train tracks behind us and the freeway with a truck towing some cars. It only gets better from here... we got to hear and see and feel the train go by every 30 minutes or so until 10:00 pm on Friday night. Thank goodness we had all mentally prepared for this trip so all we could do was laugh. Who knew this was going to turn out like this? No one in their right mind could have predicted exactly what we had just volunteered to do. Each night (thankfully only 2) we were smoothed to sleep with the nice sound of the traffic whizzing by. I love to camp but I can tell you that I am a bit of a sissy and thank goodness that I am! In preparation we swiftly packed our blow up mattress and we were on our way. There were more unlucky campers (Heather, Joe, and Cathleen) who got to sleep on mere blankets in their tents atop the asphalt while William got to sleep on the rocky dirt. Oh joy, this was going to be a great weekend!

Mom and Dad trying out there new air mattress - serious life saver!

Charlie Kicking It On Our Blow Up Mattress

After all the set up was done and we got some food in our bellies (thanks Mom for all the prep, packing, and planning!!) we finally got down to business... family time! Now my father and brother live and breathe for fire so it is only natural that we brought tons of fire wood and started the camp fire right away. Mom and Dad took Charlie for a walk to look around the area and see where we could hike down to the beach the next day. They walked down to end of trail 6 and found a bench on the top of the cliff overlooking the beach. They were lucky enough to be there when the sun was just setting and the sun looked like it was setting the water on fire. Too bad Dad didn't have his camera. I am sure it would have been an amazing photo!

The sun had set and it was time to joke, laugh, and for most of the others, drink.


We all hung out around the fire and talked about all kinds of things. Strangely it turned toward church and our frustrations and quickly everyone started jumping ship. Once the subject changed they came back out to play.


Dad got William a hat light for his last birthday. It is this little light that slides onto the bill of any hat and acts as a hands-free flashlight. In reality we all know that Dad bought the new gadget for himself and gave it to William under the guise of a gift but he couldn't wait until he could take it camping. Apparently everyone in the family found this new toy to be so cool they couldn't stop talking about it! I will admit that since the bathrooms were so disgusting that I had to breathe out of my mouth for the 2.5 seconds it took me to pull down my pants, squat, and pee in the dark it was nice to wear that stupid hat so I could see.

Heather sporting the "hat hat" with the light on a trip to the bathroom

Oh yeah, no showers. At San Clemente and Lake Silverwood there are indoor showers. They look like individual little locker rooms and you put in quarters for hot water. The bathrooms were not nice by any stretch of the imagination but tolerable considering the circumstances. San Onofre... no shower but the standard outdoor public beach showers. Needless to say that I went those 3 days showerless. Oh man did I want to take a shower and wash my hair the moment I got home on Sunday!

Slum'n it without showers

We had some s'mores and then called it a night. We were all pretty tuckered out from the long drive, the long day and the set-up. We brought Charlie's bed and he slept next to us the entire night. I don't think he moved once. It was freezing in our tent. Apparently since we had the mansion and there was only the 2 of us we didn't keep the tent very warm. I froze both nights.

The next morning Troy cooked us some eggs for the breakfast burritos and the rest of the girls got the rest of the ingredients ready: cheese, onions, and bacon. They were so good!!

My hubby manning the grill.

Mom washing dishes at the bathroom sink... loving the star blanket made into a sarong!

It was pretty overcast still and we weren't sure it was even going to be warm enough to go to the beach at all. After we ate breakfast we continued the family time and eventually broke out a deck of cards to play all the games we remembered playing as kids.

Love me some family time!

Charlie spent the majority of his time wrapped up in a blanket cuddling with me, Mom, Troy or Heather while we relaxed.



It was finally starting to warm up and we started self entertaining. We played Speed, Super Speed, Gin, and my personal favorite Bull Stink!


I have no idea what is going on with my face. Obviously I wasn't paying attention. Heather and Joe went to the store and bought cards before the trip to be sure that we had something to do. Heather pulled out one of her new decks of cards and started to play solitare. As I am watching her play she pulls out the 4 aces right off the bat. Then she turns over her next card and it is another ace. WTF?! What is going on?! We look at the box of cards and they are a deck of Pinochle cards. We all bust out laughing. To make matters even funnier Heather exclaims "Joe! You got us Pin-o-chay cards!" At that very moment Mom had taken a drink of a Diet Coke and when Heather got so worked up about her Pin-o-chay cards (pronounced pea-nuckle) Mom laughed and soda came flying out of her mouth and nose. Her eyes started to water, soda was everywhere and none of us could breathe because we were laughing so hard! First for the fact that they bought a retarded deck of cards and secondly for the way Heather kept pronouncing the card game.

My husband posing as usual for his serious photo while William is trying to burn, destroy, and blow up so new object over the fire.

After we played games the family went down to the beach to play in the water. I stayed back with Charlie and I finished the book I was reading and purchased Tori Spelling's 2nd book Mommywood on my Nook and started reading that. It was very relaxing and peaceful. I had the whole campsite to myself, all 8x8 feet of it!

That night Heather came up with the idea to play Charades. At first I thought the idea would never take off but Dad started with Star Wars (never leaving his seat) and so it began. Everyone participated. To my surprise I think William's TV show, Desperate House Wives, was the best one. It was hard enough to be fun but not easy enough that it took 2.5 seconds to guess. And he did a great job of acting it out. We had all kinds of movies, TV shows, and music including Pocahontas, Cinderella, Star Wars, 16 Candles, Family Guy, Killing Me Softly, Mary Poppins, and Frankenstein. It was so much fun! Sadly the charades turned into signing and that is when I hit the tent. While I was laying there listening to all kinds of songs like Lean On Me, then rounds of Row Row Your Boat, I think the finale ended up with the Star Spangled Banner. I wish I was making this up. It got so bad and out of tune that I nearly went to read and sleep in the car just to have the sound proofing. They were all having fun and I didn't want to be Debbie-downer but come on people!! It was 10:30 at night and if I didn't want to hear your singing I am sure the campers 3 feet from us didn't want to either!

Waiting for the next victim to act out their charade

All in all it was a great weekend. I would not recommend this campground to anyone and I hope the next family trip is either to San Clemente or Lake Silverwood. Sometimes it is best to just go with what you know and go where you are comfortable. Mom and Dad did a great job arranging everything. Sometimes I wonder how much longer we are going to be able to get all of us together like this for some quality family time. People move away, grow up, have jobs and careers, families and other responsibilities. I am trying to cherish what little, or hopefully long, time left that we have to do things together as a family.

Laker Game

With 1:30 left on the clock and the Lakers up by 6 I have reaffirmed that I really don't care about basketball considering I am blogging instead of watching. Well... what the heck... GO LAKERS!!

Reconnecting

Now that I am an adult and all grown up I have been thinking a lot about the good ol’ days. This may have been inspired while trying to think of ideas of what to say in my maid of honor speech. So it got me thinking about where everyone else is in their lives so I began seeking out old friends to reconnect with. Thanks to facebook you can basically find anyone in the world and if you are a stalker like me than you can scourer their page for details of their lives and pretty much get a sense of exactly what has been going on with them. But I am missing the personal connection with people. I have pretty much always just had a select few friends, never a huge array of friends to hang out with, and I kept them close and dear to me. After high school and we all graduated and moved on I only kept in contact with one friend, Jared. Everyone else went their own ways and I didn’t make an effort to stay connect, with the exception of facebook. I don’t hang out with any of my old friends or even talk or text with them.

So while thinking about my MOH speech and thinking about all my lost connections with good friends I started looking to reconnect with old friends from middle school. Troy and I were at my parents’ house so that Joe and Troy could play ping-pong. Since after about 10 minutes of that I was done playing and seeking other enjoyment elsewhere I ended up on the computer facebook stalking. Ryan just happened to be online so I instant messaged him. I didn’t think much of it at first. We hadn’t really had a conversation in nearly 5 years so I thought it would be a general hey, how’s life and then a gtg. But instead it turned into a whole conversation. We met in 1998, over 10 years ago and hadn’t spoken since at least graduation 5 years ago so we had a lot to catch up on. Our lives are on such different tracts. We talked about anything and everything. We even talked about the good ol’ days back in middle school when we hung out every day, went to Tommy’s, CVS, or Boomers just so neither of us had to go home. The conversation was so rewarding.

As a silly girl I had a crush on Ryan for over 3 years. It was one of those friendships that you cherished so you didn’t want to screw things up with mushy stuff but deep down would love the other person to feel the same way you did. Neither one of us ever really talked about our feelings for each other. It was something the whole world knew but no one ever talked about. Eleana was a great friend to me, as I have learned recently, as she never told him how I felt. He was the person I would lean on when the world around me was falling to pieces. My dad and I didn’t get along at all and my parents were not in the best place, with my always in the middle of the arguments. There were plenty of times that I would call him just to have someone to talk to or to get my mind of whatever else was going on. Back in the day it was all about AIM. I spent hours on that stupid thing talking to my friends from school or in chat rooms to people all around the world.

After our long conversation I broke out all my old journals and started reading my old entries. I wrote about everything and those things were dripping with drama. I wrote about all the fights I had with my dad and how I hated my life and everything about it. Troy started to read one of my really old journals and he said it made him sick to his stomach to hear about the relationship that my dad and I had. My dad is a different man now than he was when I was growing up. He couldn’t read much. I read all of them. So much of it I had forgotten. I guess it is true that you tuck away bad memories and move forward. Even though they were filled with such dark places of my life I feel like those experiences shaped who I was and who I am and looking back makes me realize how much stronger I am today because of it.

In October 2001 Ryan and I got in our last and final fight. At that point I was over it all. Our timing was never right and we were always on opposite pages. I had been in the friend zone for so long I couldn’t deal with it anymore. I remember the very day that I decided that I wasn’t going to talk to him anymore. He had hurt me for the last time. I had made the decision to start eating lunch at FV West where all the bandos ate lunch. Shorty after that I became best friends with Leslie and we double dated with Matt and Jeremy. Next thing I knew we were like the inseparable four-some. And that was the end of my friendship with Ryan. Come to find out he had no idea why we started talking and doesn't even really remember the incident that had hurt me so much.

Now nine years later we talked about all the good and bad times, everything we thought and felt and pretty much hashed out all kinds of questions and feelings we had had and never talked about. He apologized, I apologized, and we both explained how and why and what we felt. It was an absolutely rewarding conversation. I felt like everything that I thought I knew about how he was or how he felt he finally verified for me and said out loud. It brought so much peace and closure. I miss the friendship that we had though, aside from the other feelings. We were best friends and we had so much fun together. We plan on having a mini-reunion with Eleana and Brett. We have been texting back and forth ever since and it has been fun to have a friendship again that is completely unrelated to any other aspect of my life. He doesn’t know or get involved in any kind of family or work drama. I would love to reconnect with even more people and make the effort to be a good friend again. Time, stress, and actual distance has taken its toll on my relationships.

TTC - Trying to Conceive?

I have been off birth control for over a year but got back on for a couple months prior and through our wedding. I wanted to make sure that there were no surprises on our wedding day or while we were honeymoon-ing in Cancun, Mexico. Now that the honeymoon is over and Troy has conquered the unemployment monster we are starting to consider having babies.

I have mixed emotions on what should come next in my life. My 3 top priorities are buying a house, having a baby and getting some kind of degree.

As for my degree, I keep going back and forth on what I want to do with my life. I have taken quite a few college classes and if I wanted to I could probably be done with my AA and could begin working on my paralegal certificate but is that what I really want to do? I have been working on classes to transfer to a university. I have always wanted to get a degree in Consumer and Family Science but now I am not so sure. The dream is still there but my motivation to keep going and keep dishing out the money and time to continue classes is wearing on me. I am half tempted to just throw up my hands and start my paralegal classes. That way I can use the experience and time I have already invested into my current job and use it to my advantage. I feel like I am getting paid pennies while everyone around me is make the real money.

And then while figuring out what I want to do for a career we have been thinking about babies and when the timing will be right to start out our own family. I don't want to be older when I start a family but I don't want to be so young and poor that I can't really enjoy the time either. Diapers, formula, day care... these are daunting expenses but I know it will all be worth it. But can I balance it all? When do you know that you are ready? Are you ever "ready"?

Since I don't regularly get my period I have been charting my tempature each morning to see if I can track when I ovulate and to see if there is any kinds of patterns in my crazy menstral cycle. And on an even more complicated level, since I don't get regular periods I don't know if I have missed one or not. So now I am routinely taking pregnancy tests just to be sure. I have kicked most of my bad habits, with the exception of an occasional coffee, and have been taking my vitamins on that chance that if I am pregnant I am not harming my potential child.

It is crazy to believe that I am an adult now. I am married, I am in college, I am saving for a house, and we are seriously talking about babies.

Save The Date

10/17: I just received Cassandra and Andrew's save the date for their wedding. It is official... no turning back now! They can't elope now! I am so happy for them. She gave it to me when we went out to dinner at Lucky's Chinese. Andrew and Cassandra had never been before so it was nice to see them and nice to have dinner with them. They turned out so cute and it is already on the fridge. I told her that they would be too cute with a magnet. That way it can be a keep-sake too.

9/5: I am starting to plan her shower/bachelorette party. She didn't want the traditional 2 separate parties so I am kind of doing a duo part, a lingerie shower. I think it will be a fun way for her to be a bit embarrassed, celebrate, and get a lot of cute gifts for the honeymoon.

3/19: My 23rd birthday is on Friday. I don't know how I feel about being so one year old. I am trying not to get discouraged but I still feel like I am some how behind in life. I should have a degree by now, either a family or a career. Troy is turning 24. I can't even believe it. The other night I went through my "Troy Box" and looked at old love letters and cards from 6-7 years ago. It is crazy to think that I celebrated my sweet 16 with him and now am about to turn 23. I love him. :)

Next Best Thing...

To your own wedding... planning someone elses wedding! My dear friend and former bridesmaid is now taking the plunge. I am so excited for her! Tomorrow we are going to a bridal show case and then after we are going dress shopping. I don't know who is more excited, me or her?

I am understanding her stress right now as everything in the wedding process right now just looks like $$$. And when you don't have a lot of $ it can be hard to find the joy in planning and more easily seen as just plain stressful. I fear that the wedding dress shopping extravaganza will likely be the same. I told her that the rule is that she has to try on all kinds of dresses to see which style looks best on her, what feels right, and what will go with the style of her wedding. No looking at the price tag!! This trip is specifically planned to just shop and look around, and if we find "the one" then it will be a bonus!

Updated Bucket List as of 1/22/10

1. Get married and go on a fabulous honeymoon! (Done!! 10/24/09 & 10/25/09 – 10/31/09)
2. Have a baby or babies
3. Own my own home
4. Go on a hot air balloon ride
5. Go white water rafting
6. Go on a wine tasting tour
7. Vacation in NY and take tours of all the fabulous site seeing hot spots (including the Sex In The City Tour)
8. Learn how to skateboard
9. Go to the World Series
10. Earn my BA
11. Co-own a classic car/truck with my husband and learn how to work on it
12. Go on a cruise
13. Swim with dolphins
14. Study abroad for at least 1 semester
15. Go to a Nicholas Sparks book signing
16. Own a pair of fabulous and ridiculously expensive designer shoes
17. Camp in Joshua Tree to sleep under the stars
18. Read the entire Bible
19. Zip line in Costa Rica
20. See Brad Paisley in concert

Playing Ketchup!!

My life has quieted down so much you could hear a pin drop. We were so busy up through the wedding but now that the chaos is over I don’t really know what to do with myself. I have not started on any new projects. Actually, I should be trying to hammer out some major work on my scrap books. Of course I have not gotten past my graduation party in June 2005. Now I am married. I still can’t believe it sometimes. I finally was able to print all of my photos and put them in photo books. Between my Dad’s pictures and our two amazing photographers there was approx. 1,600 photos in all. If I could I would put them all over my house!

Troy got the Wii for Christmas from his Mom. This has now become his new addiction. Joe and Troy play Wii all day and all night. We have several games already. In fact, I have been wanting to get a new entertainment center to replace my old TV stand for a long time now. You know what made Troy jump on my band wagon? The Wii! In fact he wanted a new entertainment center so that the TV would be higher off the ground which would make it easier to use since the sensor bar would be higher as well. Go figure!

Heather and Joe have gotten back together since Heather has been home. The four of us have been spending quite a lot of time together. In fact, since Christmas Eve Joe has only gone home one time to spend the night at his Dad’s house. Troy and I finally made the decision that he should just move in with us. So this is our next new adventure. He has some issues in his life that he needs to clear up. We are trying to give him the opportunity to right some wrongs and get a jump start in life. I hope that he doesn’t think that this is some free ride. Rent free is just a temporary situation until he is working full time and has gotten a hold of his other financial responsibilities.

This whole arrangement will definitely change should I get pregnant. At the moment Troy and I are not “trying” to get pregnant however we are not taking any steps to prevent it either. We are not using any kind of form of protection. We are just letting nature take its course and if God thinks we are ready to become pregnant then it will happen.