Oops...

...Hi. I didn't forget about the 30 day challenge! I promise! I'm a few days behind! Today is catch up day!

Day Three:
Your Favorite Television Program...

You know I can't pick just one. There are a few faves. Mostly because these shows are the shows M and I started watching together when we first started dating, and for as long as they are on the air, we will probably watch them together. :)

1.) American Idol - I never really got into this show until I started watching with Matthew. I used to work until midnight, and he used to be nocturnal, so at the beginning of our relationship I would go to his apartment after work and we'd watch American Idol and vote for who we wanted to win.

2.) The Real World - I know, I know. I'm a grown up. I shouldn't still like this show - but I do. It's another show Matthew and I started watching together! I will never get over the drama on this show!

3.) Modern Family/Cougar Town - These two shows are tied because one comes on right after the other, and they are both equally funny!!

OK...That covers day three!!

Day Four
Your Favorite Book...

1.) The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch: who could not love this book? This is definitely a humbling book. I don't know how Randy and his wife were able to stay so strong knowing he only had a short amount of time left here on earth. I love that his kids will have this book and his last lecture to remember him.

2.) Sh*t My Dad Says - Justin Halpern:  this book is SO funny. I could read it over and over and still laugh just as hard as I did the first time! If you don't want to read the book (do it, it's hilarious), you should check them out on Twitter.

Day Five
Your Favorite Quote...

My favorite quote isn't really a quote...well it is, but it's not like, "great minds think alike." or something. It's from the Notebook... silly I know. But I think it's cute. Here it is.

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day."

Day Six
20 Of Your Favorite Things...

Just when I thought playing catch up was getting easy!

1.) My Fiance, Matthew.
2.) My dog, Teddy Graham.
3.) My nieces and nephews: Katy, Maddie, Regan, Hailey, Dylan, Cheyanne, Shai, Braden, Ethan, Tyler, and *Devon*
4.)The internet
5.) Popcorn
6.) Warm weather
7.) Holidays, 4th of July being my top fave
8.) puppies, in general
9.) babies, in general
10.) House shopping online, even though I'm not buying a house for at least 1 year.
11.) Car shopping online, and I really do need a new car.
12.) Breakfast food
13.) Desserts
14.) Date nights
15.) Board games
16.) Cooking out
17.) Weekends
18.) Any day off work that's not a sick day
19.) Going to the pool
20.) Sleep!!


Day Seven
A Photo That Makes You Happy...

I love this pic so much. My two favorite things in the whole world are displayed in this photo! :)

Day Two: Your Favorite Movie

This is another diffucult topic because I love movies oh-so-much! I love all kinds of movies...scary movies used to be my favorite but, believe it or not, I actually can't watch them anymore. I usually some how end up alone at the end of a scary movie and become extremely paranoid that either I'm going to become possessed as Emily did in the Exorcism of Emily Rose, or that Freddy Kreuger or Jason is going to be hiding in the back seat of my car, or that Leatherface - or whatever his name is - will be waiting for me in my room. Of all the scary movie creepers out there, the scariest by far is Michael Myers. I get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about him.

These days I like to stick to rom-coms and the like. Pretty much anything with Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn, or Leo DiCaprio will keep me entertained for 120 minutes. Ok, so again, in no particular order- here they are:

1. P.S. I Love You - Oh. My. Gosh. If you don't like this movie. You're crazy. Or a guy. I try to watch this movie as often as possible when the future hubs isn't home. It's a great movie to watch if you feel like you just need a good cry. Necessary items while watching: a bottle glass of wine and/or a pint of your favorite ice cream and a LARGE box of tissues. :)

2. Gran Torino - I love this movie because it's proof that people can change. The movie follows a Korean War vet who pretty much hates life. His neighbor, an asian teenage boy seems to be the brunt of all Walt's anger. By the end of the movie he's formed a friendship with the family who lives next door. I don't want to give away too much of the ending in case anyone who hasn't seen it wants to watch BUT, you may need tissues for this one too!

3. Just Go With It - This is a new movie that came out this year. Matthew and I saw it sometime last month, and it was hilarious! I laughed out loud more times than I thought I would during this movie. Maybe because the storyline is so far fetched- whatever it was, this movie made me laugh. Adam Sandler plays a plastic surgeon who manages to convince his assitant and her kids to be his ex-wife and children. They take a "family" vacation to Hawaii with the new girlfriend and chaos ensues. I have only seen this movie once and it has become a favorite. So I highly recommend it!

So difficult to pick just one favorite, so I gave you three! Hope you're happy. :)

30 Day Challenge....

I stole this 30 Day Challenge off my good friend Emily's blog...I figured it would be a good way for my bloggy friends to get to know me over the next 30 days! So each day I will post the answer to the daily question- should be fun!


Day 1 - your favorite song
Day 2 - your favorite movie
Day 3 - your favorite television program
Day 4 - your favorite book
Day 5 - your favorite quote
Day 6 - 20 of my favorite things
Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy
Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9 - a photo you took
Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11 - a photo of you recently
Day 12 - something you are OCD about
Day 13 - a fictional book
Day 14 - a non-fictional book
Day 15 - your dream house
Day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)
Day 18 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding
Day 19 - a talent of yours
Day 20 - a hobby of yours
Day 21 - a recipe
Day 22 - a website
Day 23 - a youtube video
Day 24 - where I live
Day 25 - your day, in great detail
Day 26 - your week, in great detail
Day 27 - my worst habit
Day 28 - what's in my handbag/purse
Day 29 - hopes,dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 - a dream for the future

And so it begins...

DAY ONE:
My favorite song...hmm...this is a tough one since music is such a huge part of my life! Right now I would have to say I have 3 favorite songs. Here they are, in no particular order:

1.) Highway 20 Ride - Zac Brown Band:  There are certain songs that remind me of my dad (or the relationship I wish I had with him), and this is one of those songs.

2.) Marry Me - Train:  This song makes me cry every time I listen to it. If I didn't already think it was going to be the song that a million engaged couples dance their first dance to, I would pick it for ours!

3.) Only You Can Love Me This Way - Keith Urban:  I have loved this song for, hmm, forever?!  This really is the song Matthew and I will dance to at our wedding! :) This is another song that makes me cry every time I listen to it! If ever I'm in a bad mood on my way home from work (this isn't uncommon-we'll get into my work life later), and I accidentally-might-sometimes take my frustrations out on the future hubs in text  messages during my not so good day, all I have to do is listen to this song and it puts me in a better mood, after making me feel guilty for being not nice to my sweetie.

All of these are sappy songs, but, I'm a sap. What can I say?

There you have it folks. My favorite song(s). Day one complete. Whew. That wasn't so hard!!

Earlier today something popped into my head. WE HAVE TO GET ENGAGEMENT PICTURES TAKEN IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS! Must. Start. Working. Out. NOW!  :o)

No news...

...on the wedding front these days... We have our church (Worthington Presbyterian), our reception location (The Venue), and our photographer (Addvision) booked so far. Considering that our wedding isn't for another 412 days we are ok w/ taking a mini break from planning. No worries though, it will resume full force in May...or June!

Not planning anything doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it :) every sunday at church I invision our wedding, I still (mostly) pay attention during service. And I'm thinking of creative ways to ask my my friends/family to stand next to me as my bridesmaids! I have come up with what I think are some really awesome ideas. I hope I can pull them off! :o\ We've been working on our guest list which seems to be growing- oops. I'm really proud of Matthew because he made (or perhaps downloaded) a program that allows us to enter in our ALL of our guests information and calculates how many invitations we'll need. I think that has been his favorite part of the wedding planning process so far! ...The main thing that's been on my mind is COLOR!! I can't decide on colors to use for flowers or BM dresses or anything else that involves color at a wedding! HELP (I guess I really need to get on asking these ladies to be my BM's so I can ask their opinion on this matter)!

That's all in the way of wedding plans so far, but everyone assures me 5/5/12 will be here in the blink of an eye so I better not let my planning fall too far behind!

Spring has officially sprung, so bring on the warm weather! Oh, and if anyone wants to come to my apartment to do a little spring cleaning, it would be much appreciated - especially by Matthew because it would get him out of helping! I'm sure he would be willing to pay! ;)

Before I go, I wanted to share this cute picture I took of Matthew and our nephew Tyler...

This was taken a few months ago...but I L-O-V-E LOVE this picture! He's going to be such an awesome papa one day! :)

Coming out of hibernation...

Hello, my bloggy friends, are you there? Sorry I've been gone so long! I haven't been as busy as I've been stressed! Stressed about work, who me? Never! Hehe.

Here are a few updates on what I've been doing the past few weeks and what's to come...

I went on a spur of the moment wedding dress shopping date w/ my mom and my friend Emily! You can find Em's blog here. I had my eye on a Jim Hjelm dress that I originally saw online at Theknot.com... I found a store that carries the dress in Columbus and called to get a little more information about it. The dress is somewhat out of my price range BUT I didn't want to not try it on just in case it was THE dress. :) My mom works most weekends and I really wanted her to be able to see me try on dresses at least once, it was a lazy Saturday, and the salon had an opening, so we went. LOVED the dress. Although it's not not exactly in my budget, I'm not ruling it out. Yet.

Also, we officially booked our reception venue! I'm so relieved this is completed! I feel like at this point we can relax and enjoy being engaged. I'm shocked at how quickly some places book up!! The Venue (that's what our venue is called) is officially booked for every weekend in May of 2012! I'm not really planning on planning anything else for a little while. I'm kinda nervous about picking out colors/flowers - although I have a general idea of the colors I'd like to use - I know nothing about flowers. Thank goodness for google!

I also became a member at the church where we will be married! Worthington Presbyterian Church. Matthew and I decided that when we got engaged we would start going to church on a regular basis so that when we start a family we'll already be in the habit of going (is it wrong to say we'll be in the habit of going to church?). I love that we are getting married in "our" church where we will attend service each Sunday. I love the church because it's beautiful. And I absolutely love the idea of getting married in the same church that M's parents were married in, as well as his sister, Marie, and her husband, Joseph. I think it's sweet. Check out Marie's blog here!

That's what we've been up to the past few weeks. Now I'm just waiting for this winter weather to be over with for good! We have a lot of fun things on our schedule in the next few weeks. This coming weekend I am going to a bridal shower for Missy (M's brothers fiancé), and a baby shower for Marie! I cannot wait to meet Baby W who will be born at the end of May. We're also planning a trip to visit Marie, Joe. and Baby W in Chicago when he/she (he) arrives! Next weekend, we will celebrate the second birthday of Austin. He's my best friend Kristin's, son. So adorable! Our weekends are packed full and I'm looking forward to all of the fun things in store for us!

Matthew is asking if I'm writing a book over here... I think that means it's time to go! :)

Reception Venue? ✔

The past couple of weeks we've been checking out reception venues, let me tell you, I was really starting to get worried that we wouldn't find a place. But, we did!! Thankfully we can cross that off the list and now we can relax for a while.


In all the bridal magazines I've been reading they have indicated that you should limit yourself to two or three reception sites and choose from one of them. After our first visit, I pretty much thought that would be impossible. We found ours in four visits. I'd say that's darn close considering I thought we'd have to visit at least 15!


Our first visit was to the Four Seasons Columbus. They had an amazing outdoor area which is very important to us. We probably would have booked there if we hadn't tasted the food first. Thank goodness we got to taste the food before making a commitment.  The venue itself was nice, it had a "barn" like feel and we liked that since we can't find any barns in Columbus where we could actually hold our reception. BUT... when we went to the food tasting -to put it nicely- it just wasn't for us. We didn't want to spend an $8,000 food and beverage minimum on food we could make at home. It was very bland and we wanted something different.


Our second visit was to The Lake Country Club and was actually at the top of our list for a while. We liked that we would get the club for the entire day and could get ready there before heading to the church. The menu was reasonably priced, and it's a on a beautiful golf course that would be perfect for pictures. I have nothing absolutely nothing bad to say about it!!


Our next visit was to The Columbus Athenaeum and I had high hopes before we got there. They have a beautiful ballroom that wasn't offered to us for our reception (it's possible it was already booked for our date). While I did like some of the rooms they showed us, they were all kind of dark and stuffy. Matthew was not a fan of the theater room, because it's just that. A room with theater seating. And a stage. And quite possibly curtains? Ok, maybe no curtains, but the fiancé wasn't a fan. Moving on...


The fourth destination we planned was for The Venue at Smith Bros. I had extremely high expectations of this site but after visiting the Athenaeum I was starting to think I was going to have to add some other potential sites to our list. There were very few pictures of the Venue online, but the ones I did come across, I L-O-V-E LOVED. When we got to the Venue we met w/ the owner and as soon as we walked into the room we knew it was the place for us. It's an awesome rustic looking room and has a huge patio and courtyard (a definite plus). It looks amazing when it's lit up at night. I love that it will fit with the vintage theme we're (I'm) going for and that it's not too fancy. Although I think it's a relatively new venue, it has character. Here are a few pics... :)

I took a few of the inside, but haven't gotten them on the computer yet. So you'll just have to wait for those! Looks awesome, right?!


While driving home I wanted to make sure we were both in love with it, and that Matthew didn't want something more formal. His response to me was that this place was just "us." A ballroom or country club, while beautiful, wouldn't suit us as well as the Venue. When we got home I called Steve back and he put a hold on the room. We are scheduled to meet with him on Monday morning! Can't wait!


Now I can breathe a sigh of relief. After worrying about how difficult it might be to find the perfect place I can relax...until it comes time to find the dress!

It's Official...

I've joined the blogging world... And for a good reason, WE'RE ENGAGED! What better reason to begin blogging than to blog about planning the most amazing day of your life?! I am ecstatic to be planning our big day!! I secretly began planning our wedding the day after our second first date (I'll explain later)! I think my future hubs is excited about most of the planning process as well, although if you ask him, he might not admit that. :)

Speaking of my future husband, he's AH-MAZING! Borderline perfect. Yes, I really feel this way! Matthew and I went to the same high school, but didn't officially meet until after we both graduated. I was 20 and he was 19 but we didn't go on our first date until September 14th, 2008. Matthew picked me up from work (I had an early work meeting) and we went to brunch at the Capital Club where I ate one piece of bacon and approximately three small pieces of cantaloupe - I am very weird about eating in front of people before I know them, not sure why. After brunch we went to the Columbus broadway production of The Lion King.

After the play we had a long way back to the car in the biggest wind storm Columbus has ever seen! Little kids were literally holding on to benches and light posts! Lucky for me I had Matthew to block the wind and keep me from blowing away! After our first date we talked for a few days but didn't go out again. :( LUCKILY, a few months later, after I was settled in to a new job, we reconnected. Yay! We went on our second 1st date on Friday February 13th, 2009 - don't worry, we're not superstitious. When I got home that night Matthew had messaged me asking if I would be his Valentine the next day, and we have been inseparable ever since!

Fast forward a few years to January 31st, 2011. What started out as a not so great day turned into the BEST. DAY. EVER. I was not having a good day at work and I was getting a little antsy about when he was going to pop the question. I talked to Matthew a little through out the day about how frustrating it could be waiting for something when he possibly, might have made me think it was going to be a lot sooner than it was. And I know these things can't be rushed and it will happen when the time is right...but let's face it...the time was right.

I got home from work not feeling much better about my day, dreading especially, the thought of coming home and exercising. When I walked in the door the first thing I saw were roses on our pseudo dining room table. Thinking it odd but (not surprised) that Matthew would buy me flowers just because, I continued into the apartment. To my surprise, he cleaned! This is normally my job and I'm actually kind of surprised he knew where to find the vacuum let alone how to turn it on. Ok. Not that surprised. :) The only other thing I found somewhat strange was that the man was dressed. Jeans and a polo shirt. He never gets dressed when he doesn't have somewhere to be going (that I haven't planned out for us) because if was up to him he'd wear a work shirt and sweat pants EVERYDAY. After a few minutes Matthew convinced me to go upstairs and change so I could get my work out over with. Upon reaching the top of the steps, what did I see? Rose petals? On the floor? Hmm...? I open the door to our bedroom and was shocked to see roses, rose petals, and candles everywhere. At this point there are 3 things that are keep running through my brain. #1: I wish I had washed my hair this morning. #2: I wish my outfit was cuter right now. #3: I BETTER SIT DOWN! Matthew sneaked up the stairs behind me and pulled out 3 more roses. He handed me one and told me it was to represent my past. The second he handed to me and said it was to represent out future. He gets down on one knee. OMG IT'S COMING! HE'S REALLY GOING TO DO IT! He hands me the third and final rose and says this rose is to represent our future and it has the ring attached to it! All the while I'm thinking to myself that I can't cry because if I cry I won't hear what he's saying and I need to remember everything he's saying for the rest of my life. Well telling myself not to cry didn't work b/c not only did we both cry, I can't even remember if I said YES! He assures me I did say yes! Whew!

Now we're planning our wedding and getting ready to start our lives together as a married couple! Can't wait! So there you have it, the long, short version of our first date, and proposal...

Keep reading as we plan our wedding together!

Oh, by the way, Matthew just pulled these tickets out of his desk drawer! I can't believe he still has them! How sweet! :)