My First Blog Award

Olivea over at The Sweet Life has so kindly given me my first blog award EVER. Thank You!!! I am absolutely honored. I do this blog because I love to write. I have been keeping journals since the age of 10 long before the Internet digital age! It's just something I need to do. The fact that anyone at all reads it or derives some sort of enjoyment out of it is such a bonus. This little blog community has been so fun to be a part of.

Blog award Rules:
1. Post where you want to be in 10 years
2. Pass it on to 10 of your BF (blog friends)

Each of the following bloggers offers a unique perspective on all kinds of things. It's been fun and interesting to take a peak inside the lives of so many and I enjoy reading each and every one of them.

A Practical Wedding, The Happy Nappy Bride,

Brown Girl Blogs, Blonde Ambition,

Adventures in Wanting, Bronzed Beauty

Healthy Hot Housewife, Language Is Wine Upon The Lips,

Gorgeously Stupid, Hoppin' The Broom

Part II of my blog award post to be continued.....

Call Of The Jammies

I have such a difficult time breaking myself out of my work week ritual of home, shower, eat, TV, random internet surfing, bed and usually in that order. I do want to go out for Tapas with Mj to celebrate his friends B day but I also want to go home and jump into my pajamas. When I make plans with friends to do anything after work it has to be at 5:30pm so I can go straight there and then get on home so I am not out too late. Logistically, that's best too because I work towards the center of town and live about 14 miles east. I'm not about to zig zag back back and forth across town or be stuck waiting with nowhere to go. Besides, most happy hours end by 7pm. If we can't coordinate our schedules for 6:00pm at the latest and/or meet at a mid point it just 'aint happening. Once I walk through the front door after a long day of work the call of jammies and relaxation is usually just too strong for me to resist.

Tonight we are meeting up at 7pm. Instead of running through all of those excuses like "I'm tired, it's a work night and I have to be at work an hour early tomorrow" I am going to step out of my stainless steel comfort zone and go. There is really no good reason not to. It's Spring so we have an extra hour of daylight and it's a nice 70 degrees out. It'll be fun, I can finally find out what the heck Tapas are and I really need to stop acting like I'm 70 years old.

She Hates Your Wedding Website

Article: Slate, I Hate Your Wedding Website

The author of this article pokes fun at wedding websites and refers to them as yet another way for people to "...celebrate their daily existence....Instead of being tasteful, utilitarian affairs, these sites inevitably turn into showcases for unbridled narcissism—and open the couple up to a great deal of mockery from friends and strangers alike." Her and her girlfriend spent hours laughing at different websites and forwarding the links to other friends to laugh about too. "Pretty soon everyone had seen "Jane" and "Tim's" site, on which they treated their impending nuptials with all the pomp that preceded Princess Diana's wedding."

"The vibe is perhaps meant to be "classy," but it's very hard to achieve an understated aesthetic when the message you most want to telegraph is LOOK AT ME."

"There are a grand total of 651 pictures featured—from baby photos to Solo-cup-filled college dorm-room shots to shots of their four—count 'em—engagement parties."

Personally, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with having a wedding website and I'm not just saying that because I have one right now. No, I do not think my wedding is the most important thing in the world but it is important to me and so I'm going to share it. The Internet along with face book, twitter, and everything else is here to stay so why not make it fit your needs? Why not utilize it to share a special day in our lives and as a tool to share useful wedding information with guests? People hardly use stamps anymore because we pay bills, send letters, and almost everything else online. Now, guests can RSVP online directly from a web page-no stamp required. It's just a sign of the times. There is a website for everything now.

I do agree that these days the need to publicize every single little thing has become very widespread and a little annoying. You need only take one look at your face book news feed to see this. People are posting everything from "I got a new job," "running errands" to "going out for sushi" to "I lost my keys." And, they are doing it all day every day. I'm thinking about posting something like "picking my nose" just to see what people might say and to make a point. Some people really do feel the need to track their every little move on the Internet. It doesn't bother me too much, I just happen to not be one of them.

When you are in love you want to shout if from the roof tops but that might cause a scene and/or bodily injury. So, we make a website instead. I love ours. It was fun to make and there is nothing on there I would be embarassed about 20 years from now. I used mywedding.com. I did not post 500 pictures of the two of us walking into the sunset and staring lovingly into each others eyes, but so what if I did? There is nothing wrong with being happy, in love, and wanting to share that with friends and family. That's what we do at weddings and that's what we do on wedding websites.

Alterations, Invites, and Mom

Let's just say I totally underestimated the time it would take to address invitations. What seemed like a fairly simple project turned into a 4 1/2 hour job! The good news is that my partner was my mom and yes there was champagne, candy, dessert and chatting throughout making it fun.

My mom came down Saturday and I took her over to see our new still in progress house. It was so cool to be able to share that with her. She is so happy for us. Then, we went downtown for a nice lunch. On the way home we stopped over at David's Bridal so I could have my dress alterations done. They had to take it in on the sides in the area between my waist and my hips so it will fit better, shorten it, and add the bustle. Grand total....$224.00!! Ouch. I am shocked that I of all people will be wearing something that cost $700 bucks. For one day. The under $500 dress is technically no longer which I am kind of bummed about but it had to be done.

The fiance did his homeworK and delivered with a nicely organized excel spread sheet of addresses. Mom came armed with her address book and we got to work folding, stuffing, sticking, and writing. My RSVP's were messed up because I did not include a line next to Name(s) _________ and so Name(s) ended up smack dab centered with no room to the right to write. It looked really goofy and I was really upset with myself for making this mistake but I had an online chat with Invitations By Dawn and they were really great about re printing them at no charge and shipping them out within days. On the inner envelopes I stuck labels I made wIth our website info and wrote the guests names. We used all of those free address labels that we have accumulated over the years to put on the outer envelope instead of writing out our return address. I didn't use any special pens or monograms. My mom so kindly volunteered to do the mailing for me and will pick out nice wedding stamps to use.

Mj and I got into a bit of a debate about including a stamp on the RSVP envelopes for those that we know use the Internet regularly. Our label clearly says to check out our website where they can RSVP online and is prominently placed on the outer envelope so I chosing not to include stamps for my Internet savvy friends. I just didn't see the point and at .40 cents a pop I wanted to save my mom the expense. Mj felt that he could not determine who is Internet savvy nor could he guarantee that each and every guest would look at our website. I told him that I don't care if they choose not to....they will just have to pony up a stamp because we did give them the option to go online. He seemed uncomfortable with not including stamps so I told my mom to put them on all of his RSVP's.

We took a dessert break then finished up. Mom didn't leave until 11:30 pm. Our planned guest total is 75. No babies or kids and for the most part we did include plus ones if they were married or had a significant other. We sent out a total of 72 invitations that include 116 people!! Are we taking a huge risk? There are a lot of out of state/out of town folks. We know that our wedding is the most sought after event of the Summer season-but of course. Even so, we expect that a lot will not be able to attend. We just went ahead and invited who we wanted and hope that it will all shake out in the end at around 75-80. If not...we're in BIG trouble!!

Lot 55

trenching February 13th

staking February 21

foundation pour February 28

first floor framing March 7

second floor framing March 14

the soon to be Great Room

dining area window

It's starting to look like a neighborhood and I can't wait to move in!

House progress cont'd
Home Buying Journey Part I:  Getting Pre Approved

Looks Like We're Gettin' The House!!

Community Plan-ours is lot 55

the models

Plan 1

I thought this was so cute!!!

This whole time I've been sort of holding my breath about this whole house thing. Not really talking about it too much and trying to not get too excited. We've been to the design studio to pick out our cabinets, appliances, flooring and other options. We've spent plenty of time pouring over the models. We go by there every week to take pictures of the home building progress and we receive weekly e mails from the builder letting us know what's going on next. We've watched it go from a pile of dirt to an actual frame with steps in it and even ran into a couple of our future neighbors at the sales office. This is a huge and exciting thing yet the fun of it all has been subdued by fear and the house has not ever really felt like ours even after contract signing.

At the Home Design Studio

First it was the money. Then, when I decided I wanted the house so bad that even though it was above what we originally planned I didn't care. It was still doable and I wanted it. Then, once I got over that it was financing. We got denied our VA loan by the home builder's preferred lender so we immediately went to USAA. We submitted our paperwork two weeks ago and this everlasting limbo has just been going on and on. According to contract we could lose our lot without a lender approval so this was very stressful. You know they don't keep building houses for people who haven't yet figured out how they are going to pay for it. They kept putting our file off behind other ones with closer closing dates instead. Until today. We finally got our answer from USAA and the answer is YES!!

Stainless steel appliances-CHECK

Never mind that Mj sent me this evil e mail telling me that we got denied causing my heart to drop into my shoes only to call me a minute later and tell me he was just joking. How mean is that? Let's just say I am really not used to getting what I want. He is the optimist. He hopes for the best and usually gets it. I however hope for the best, but expect [and prepare for] the worst. Once I heard the news I was overjoyed. I was at my desk doing the happy dance with my shoulders. This means that this is really going to happen for us. We are really going to move out of this tiny studio. We are going to be moving into the new house we have been wanting and it WILL be before our wedding. In the not so distant future I will have space to hang my clothes, a garage to park my car and be able to do laundry without stockpiling quarters. Oh, and MJ can finally get all of his stuff out of storage-including the Wii. Maybe I will finally get some exercise!! My parents are also finally going to get some of their garage back when we can go over there and pick up our storage bins they have so kindly stored for us.

I want to enjoy this experience at least a little and not just be stressed out by it. I think now that we have made it through this final hurdle I will finally be able to. Next step: lock in our interest rate and decide on points. Then, closing here we come!!

Cont'd:  Loan Lock
Home Building Progress:  Lot 55