Bundle of Nerves

Thursday and Friday before the wedding are really just a blur.  I remember everything that we did and all the things we had to get done, but it feels like those two days flew by so quickly.  Thursday morning I had breakfast with my almost mother-in-law.  Of course we were saps and got all emotional in front of the whole restaurant...oh well.  She got me the coolest gifts!  I got a canvas with mine and Aaron's name on it with 4 words I used to describe our relationship.  I also got the coolest picture frame with our names all over it and our wedding date.  www.personalizationmall.com it's an awesome site!!

Thursday my mom came in to stay with us for the weekend, we had my trial hair appointment, where my mother so boldly told me at the end that they needed to leave some hair over my ears...because they stick out.  Awesome, thanks mom.

Friday morning I woke up at about 4 a.m. because Aaron elbowed my in the eye, all I could think about was having a black eye for the wedding...I never got back to sleep.  I got out of bed at 7 feeling so sick.  Aaron wasn't much better.  I couldn't eat anything my stomach was a ball of knots.  My mom and I were meeting my cousin Chelsea for spa day..so off we went.  I couldn't even enjoy my mani/pedi I was such a freaking mess. 

It was never really about actually getting married to Aaron, the marriage wasn't freaking me out..it was the event.  The planner in me was out in full force, and I wanted total and complete control over everything.  Once we got to the venue and I could see everything, make things how I wanted them, and I started to feel a lot better.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch, even though we couldn't practice in our actual venue.  Our dinner was great, we had fun with or family and friends, I was feeling so much better.  The knots were completely gone!

No Kissing before the wedding!  That didn't last!

One of our center pieces

That's all for now!

<3 Karissa

The Beginning

So this is the end of the story, but it doesn't seem fitting to call it the end.  It's really the beginning of our lives as a married couple.  So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, so I'm going to break up these posts so they aren't super long.


I took the week before the wedding off, and the week after...let me tell you what a total bummer it was to go back to work this week!

The week before the wedding was when the anxiety set in.  It was never about the marriage, or being married to one person, or questioning anything in regards to Aaron himself...it was all about the actual event.  The true planner in me was out in full force.  I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off the week before.  Up until then we had felt we were doing great on our budget...that's because we only shelled out deposits up until then.  Suddenly all the final payments were due.  I swear I heard our bank account cry, and our credit card sigh a little bit.  We managed to stay within budget...but when you pay for everything all at once boy does it hurt.  Thanks dad for paying for the reception!!! 

The week before the wedding I got a call from our coordinator (this was the day of the horrible movie theater shooting) saying they were supposed to be doing a "Flash Mob" to promote the new movie..Step up revolution...(whatever it's called)  the theater wanted to be sensitive to the victims and decided to postpone the flash mob....can you guess when they wanted to do it?  Yep during my reception!

I wasn't trying to be a brat, but when I'm spending thousands and thousands of dollars for my reception I don't want a stupid flash mob interrupting our first dance (that's exactly what time they had planned it for.)  So in true bridezilla form I axed the flash mob...total bummer summer...sorry!!

The week of the wedding, I had my phone glued to my ear all day every day.  I just don't like leaving things up to other people...again it's the planner in me.  It's usually the week before the wedding where I'm telling the bride, "don't worry I'll take care of that, don't worry I'll make that call"  and suddenly I was having to worry about everything!!!

I have never been more stressed in my life..planning a wedding is THE BEST weight loss program ever.  I had absolutely no appetite at all...it's funny because I still don't...but I shed a couple lbs and I wasn't sad about that!  To deal with the stress, we decided to start golfing....I know, help with stress??  Golf didn't help with the stress it made it worse, but we've found out I'm not all that bad!!

I have more posts scheduled but pre wedding I'm starting to ramble...so I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from our photo booth!

<3 Karissa

EEEKKKK!!

Read the ticker...enough said!!!!

For the last day...
<3 Karissa Graves ;)

One week!!

There is way too much going on in my brain right now to even post. All I can say is that I am so ready to stop planning, and just be married! I have so many upcoming posts,but let's be honest... A week before the wedding I don't have time to blog. I'll leave you with some teasers..

budget...what budget? Part 2
Flash mob....excuse me??
Cheap & Tacky
Golf

<3 Karissa

10 Things that Make Me Happy

So I'm stealing an idea from a post from my friend Loni. Apparently we're both big fans of trashy TV and were both waiting Bravo last night when a show "10 Things that Make Me Happy" came on. I loved watching to see what everyone would say! Loni got a brilliant idea to post 10 things that make her happy on her blog. So then I got the even more brilliant idea to do the same kind of post ;) Thanks Loni!!

Of course my wonderful, handsome fiancée, and my friends and family make me happy..they're a given!!

So here's my list of 10 Things That Make Me Happy

10:
The Magic Bullet....sorry ladies it's not a vibrator. It's a food processor, and a damn good one! I love this thing. I've only used it to make mixed drinks so far, but boy can it crush some ice. I'm sure it does everything well, and when we aren't so busy I'll play around with it some more!

9. My complete Friends series on DVD. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Friends. I loved watching it when it was on NBC, and I still love watching it. If there is nothing else on TV I will always watch reruns. I have seen every episode a million times, and no matter what I always laugh.

8. My Apple items Ipad/phone. Love them. I love not having to fire up my computer every time I want to check something on the internet, and I love all the apps.

7. Plato's Closet. Ok before you judge let me explain this one. I am a big fan of saving money, and getting my money's worth. I love the fact that I can take my old clothes to the store and sell them for cash! I also shop there on occasion. I buy my work shorts there, since I work with kids, I don't really want to wear my good "going out" clothes. So 8 bucks on a pair of shorts is a great deal..especially if they get a little paint on them!

6. Alright, this one may be a little embarrassing for anyone to admit, but I have dark hair, and I'm Italian...so we Sopko ladies are plagued with dark hair...everywhere. I just found this new product for removing facial hair (upper lip) that works FANTASTIC, and doesn't irritate my skin at all. I've searched high and low for something that won't give me little red bumps. OLAY Facial hair removal duo is the bomb! This stuff works wonders, it makes me so happy that I finally found something that feels so good. It's a little pricy but it's totally worth it!

5. Summer Time: I can't tell you how much I HATE winter, and being cold. Yes I know we're living in the wrong state. I do love the first few weeks of fall, with the crisp air, and changing colors, but I am a summer girl. I was born in the summer, and I live for hot hot hot summer days. I love being barefoot outside, I love getting tan, I love the dresses I can wear. My whole closet is stocked for summer, I have a really hard time dressing in the winter. I'm in such a good mood in the summer I LOVE IT!!

4. My kitties. I was never a cat person until I met Aaron. I still don't think I'm a cat person, I just like my cats. They are so funny, so cute, and full of cuddles. It makes me so happy to have them both curl up in bed with me, although they are HUGE bed hogs. As I'm typing this my baby kitty has the hiccups..so cute!

3. My engagement ring, and my wedding band. Of course every girl can't wait to get hers. I love mine so much. Every time I look at it I get so excited to think of the meaning behind it. To know that Aaron picked it out, and hid it from me for a month trying to think of the perfect way to ask me.

2. My house. We have so much going on right now. It's hard to appreciate everything when we're doing so much, but sometimes when I turn onto our street (Summertime ct)...see I'm a summer girl through and through. I pull into our driveway and get so happy to see OUR house. When I walk in and see all we have done to make it our own, I just love it!

1. Reading/my books/ my Nook: I am an avid reader. I love getting lost in books, I generally read 5 or 6 books a week. Sadly the past couple of months it hasn't been quite as many since we have been so busy. I can't shut my mind off unless I read before bed. Even if I'm dead tired I'll read a couple of pages. I have so many different authors that I love, and so many different series that I have enough to keep me reading for years. The best thing ever is my Nook. I love it, and it makes me so happy that I can take hundreds of books with me wherever I go. I recently got the new glow light nook...LOVE IT. It's nice that Aaron can go to bed, shut the lights off, and I can stay up and read without bothering him!

Ok, so there's my list of 10 things that make me happy there are so many more things, but I don't have time.

Oh one more..I'M GETTING MARRIED IN 3 WEEKS!!!!

<3 Karissa

The Home Stretch

How is it July already? I swear I woke up yesterday excited that there was 2 months until the wedding..and now we're actually in wedding month...HOLY BALLS!!!



I'll be completely honest... I don't want to wish this all away, but I am also so ready for all of this to be over. I feel like our lives revolve around the wedding right now. We don't want to start any home projects because they'll just sit this entire month. We don't want to spend money because we're about to drop a whole lot of it. I'm just ready to get back to living life.



I'm sure there are tons of brides out there that would smack me right now for saying that I'm ready for it to be over..but I'm sooo tired. I'm sick of having crazy dreams about my flowers (one where we carried coat hangers, because flowers were never delivered). I'm sick of trying to chase people down who have said they were coming, but have yet to RSVP...I'm sick of trying to plan everything and keep everything in motion...I'm JUST SO TIRED!!!



I have always been a planner at heart. It can be Monday evening and I'll be asking Aaron what we're going to do this coming weekend, because I like to know, and I like to have everything planner out. I'm a very spur of the moment person when it comes to implus purchases and doing crazy wild things, but I love to have my plans. It is so freaking hard to plan everything for everyone, and work around everyone’s schedule. We can't even find time to go get our marriage license together..so I have to do it alone. :(



Through this whole planning phase (9 months) I have really tried to avoid playing the "I'm the Bride" card, and I feel like I have done pretty damn good, but sometimes I just want to scream...why are you making this so difficult...I'm the bride, this is what I want, just do it. It's not like I'm asking people to cut their arms off..for the most part it's fun stuff, and I feel like I've had to pull teeth, which in turn makes me feel like the bad guy...and then makes me care anymore.



I know this is kind of a bummer post, and it should probably be filled with many more exciting thoughts. I truly am excited to get married and be Mrs. Monzo, and I am really excited for the wedding itself, but right now at this moment...I'm ready for July 29th so I can be a wife on her honeymoon.



<3 Karissa

Welcome to the 50's

Division of labor and assests has been on our minds lately.  How does a couple who once lived totally seperate lives, mesh their two lives together?  It's a hard subject to bring up.  We had the conversation when we first moved in together.  We weren't engaged, but we knew we were headed in that direction (or else I never would have moved in).

We split certain bills, and we went every other on grocery trips...seemed fair.  Then almost hubs pops the question, and the whole topic comes up again...not to mention I took a different job, which I love, yet doesn't pay me near what I was making before.  Suddenly I find myself doing all of the housework, cooking all the meals (at least the meals that we eat at home...we eat out A LOT)  and clipping coupons, and all other wifely duties.  While almost Hubby took on the brunt of the bills, I turned myself into a nice little housewife!

Don't get me wrong, I like making my own money, and I love my Independence..and I'll be damned if my wedding vows say the word obey.  Chances are if almost hubby told me to stand still, I would jump up and down on one foot..I don't "obey"  But I love love love taking care of him.

I love cooking for the almost hubs, I don't mind doing all the laundry..I don't love laundry in general, but it doesn't bother me to do his too.  Partly because I don't want him to ruin anything of mine.  I love cleaning the house, and making it a clean home for him to come home to everyday.  If he's going to be doing most of the providing for our family, why shouldn't I be helpful in the places that I can be? 

Some people may read this blog and want to totally smack me, and think these opinions are the reason why women still aren't equal to men.  I would like to point out..if I had a high paying stressful job that provided a huge chunk of our income, I know I would be singing a different song, however the situation being what it is, I feel perfectly content in contributing in every way I possibly can...so put me in an apron, and stick me in the kitchen...I'm cookin dinner tonight!

<3 Karissa
p.s. 1 month 1 week 1 day till I DO!!!  YIKES!!!!

Man Gene and Total Destruction Part 2

So the past few posts have been about how vastly different men and women are.  How our brains are totally different, and how we function completely opposite.  In my Total Destruction post we covered the topic of our backyard overhaul.  I was pretty happy with the outcome of our conversation.  We were going to tackle the backyard one section at a time, that way we didn't have to look at a crap pile of a yard the whole season.  Well that whole theory went to shit yesterday.  I blame my father.  What is it about a pair/group of men getting together, and suddenly everything seems possible?  "Oh you want to dig a hole for a pool with your bare hands...NO PROBLEM.  I bet I can dig faster and deeper than you!"  Everything becomes a possibility and everything becomes a giant pissing contest.

Throw in my dad, and suddenly hubs to be thinks he can do it all, and for some reason has to prove it.  *Side note, when men are all together why do their ideas become more and more stupid?*  We had my dad over to help with some yard work.  My idea was to get one whole side of the yard totally cleaned up, and ready for some planting next weekend...Aaron and my dad had a much better idea.  Lets get a 15lbs sledge hammer and giant ax and chop at a stump in the ground for 2 hours...just to see what happens!  Oh lets also get a saw and cut down two trees in the backyard.  Honey it will be a great idea. 

EXCUSE ME..HOLD THE PHONE.... What happened to pulling weeds raking up all this dirt and getting some nice stepping stones and potted plants??  Oh I know Father and Son-in-law together...Operation Total Destruction is back on.  I'm so glad our logical conversation was at the front of almost hubs mind...oh wait it wasn't.

While I appreciate all the cool news toys my dad bought Aaron, I don't appreciate the fact that he's now got these massive toys that do nothing but create a mess in my yard!  So now my yard has to extra stumps from the cut down trees, a "burn pile" the size of a bear cave of wood that we'll have to burn once we get our fire pit, and nothing has been planted yet.

We worked ourselves to the bone yesterday, and my dad was great help, we actually got a lot cleaned up and while it looks worse than before..it also looks better..all the weeds are good, all the dead leaves are raked out.  My dad did a great job helping us...I just don't think I'll ever let those two make the plan again!!

The Man Gene

Lets talk about the man gene.  A gene that resides only in the male species.  This gene allows for men to walk in the door, see the mat where shoes are supposed to go, and it somehow signals their brain to put their shoes three feet away from that mat. I don't get it.  It's not just shoes either it's all inanimate objects.

Dishes are placed in the sink, when the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes, waiting for the last few dishes to have a full load.  Mind you the dishwasher is a foot away from the sink.

Empty glasses are left ALL OVER the house, regardless of how many times he's walked into the kitchen to get something else.  Same goes for dirty socks, and walking to the bedroom.

The real kicker is the keys...ohhhh the keys.  It's an on going battle and I honestly think I'm fighting it with myself., because no matter how many times I subtly move the keys to the correct spot, I find them resting peacefully two inches away form their true resting place.

Where they should go...

Where they end up.

This BOGGLES MY MIND!!!!!!

Someone please explain to me how as women we can be soooo vastly different from men.  How is it that I can walk in the door each day and put my keys in the little box (which was purchased by Aaron not me!!) and he manages to get them about an inch away from the box???

I don't think he's lazy by any means.  There are a million and one things that Aaron has going on around the house, but it will never cease to amaze me that the small tasks somehow are nearly impossible to get men to complete!

Lions and Laughs with the Larners

After a few crazy weekends working on the house, and dealing with the wedding, we decided to forget about our projects, and do something fun!  We have both always wanted to go to the Detroit zoo, so we packed our bags and headed to Detroit.  Aaron has a cousin that lives there (we went to the Pistons game with them earlier this year) so we crashed their weekend and all went to the zoo together! 

Talking a 1 year old to the zoo is SO MUCH FUN!!  I'm about to marry a grown child, and Amanda and I joked about how excited Aaron was getting about the animals, but watching their little girl watch the animals was so cute!  Plus she is the cutest little baby on the earth! I could watch her facial expressions all day long.

The zoo was lots of fun..it was sooooo hot.  Somehow I managed to get a wonderful burn on my left shoulder.  I have been tanning so I have a nice base color for the wedding, and I have been really careful about lines, and now I have a lovely strap mark on my shoulder...awesome.

After the zoo we went home, and had grown up's night out!  John and Amanda had a sitter all lined up, and it was the first time their little lady wasn't staying with a grandparent it was an actual sitter.  It was so funny/cute to listen to Amanda give instructions!  I have to say, while we were out, she was a very good trusting mama, and didn't call and check in every 5 minutes!  I know I won't be that calm and collected!  We headed out for a great dinner, and comedy show!  It was so much fun.  Aaron and I always go out to dinner, and we hit a movie every now and then, but we never actually get all dressed up and do date night.  It really made us think.  We promised on our way home today, we would do an official date night once a month.  Something that we don't always do, where we have to get a little dressed up (that was my rule) and something that would expose us to different things and activities that are around our city!

John and Amanda live right in front of a pond, so we slept with the windows open, and had nice breeze and listened to the frogs all night, it was so peaceful!  This morning we woke up and sadly said our goodbyes, and headed out to Ikea!

Ikea is one of my favorite stores.  I would love to be able to walk in to their show room, pick up a "room" and put it in my house.  Sadly I'm not a zillionare and can't do that, but we made out really well!  We go some decorative pieces, and a new TV stand.  We pretty much got everything we went for and then some!  Of course I explained to Aaron that the reason we did so well money wise was because we have to put everything together ourselves.  Anyone who had every put something together from Ikea knows how OBNOXIOUS it is.  It will truly test how solid your relationship is if you can manage to put your stuff together without killing your partner.

We bought a bed side lamp.....took us 25 minutes to put that animal together, and we were on the verge of killing each other.  We managed to survive and it's sitting blissfully on our nightstand.  Probably mocking us at how long it took us, but regardless..we did it! 

We had a wonderful, relaxing (minus the assembly of the lamp) weekend.  We spent it with wonderful people, and had a great time reconnecting!

xoxo
<3 Karissa

Total Destruction

Just going to throw this question out there...Why do men love total destruction?  What is it about seeing something totally destroyed that gives them such a boner?  I can't stand mess, I can't stand the feeling of being out of sorts, and looking at something and seeing it competely torn apart.  I don't think we'll ever be able to buy a fixer upper I would probably die having to live in the mess.  I felt so out of sorts when we were moving, and that was just boxes.

So back to the initial question...Why, oh why do they love the mess?  It's a question that will probably always be answered with "It's just a man thing" and there is no logical answer.

We don't have any work to do in the house, where we do have work is the back yard.  It's not horrible, but there are lots of trees in one area, and grass will never grow.  So us being the HGTV junkies we are, decided to crash our own backyard, and turn half of it into a "Monzo oasis"  We have all these great ideas, and lots of work to do!

Now, here comes the fun part.  Yesterday we're out working on the yard, pulling weeds and ripping out bushes when Aaron gets an awesome idea.  "Let's just continue to rip up everything we want to get out of here, clean the yard and then we'll piece everything together slowly"  UMMMMMMMM excuse me!?  You want to do what???  Rip out the whole backyard and then piece it back together?  Don't we have a wedding coming up, followed by a honeymoon...sure honey, lets destroy the backyard so we can't host anymore parties the rest of the year!

Luckily for me, my quick thinking worked in my favor!  "Babe wouldn't you rather work section by section?  Work on it finish it, and then be done with it!?  It will be so much more gratifying if we can actually see some finished product.  Plus if we rip everything up now, we won't finish this summer!"    By the grace of God he agreed with me  THANK YOU BABY JESUS!  I just saved myself from having to look at a mud pit for the entire summer!

So here's a break down of what took us six hours yesterday.  We ripped out two bushes....completely took out all the crap all the previous owners laid down (we're doing things the right way) we put down new soil and planted new flowers. 

Yep this took us six hours.  So glad we didn't rip up the whole yard!

As we move into June I'm constantly thinking of things about the wedding, having bad dreams of all of the things I forgot to do.  Now I know why people hire wedding planners.  I always thought it was silly to hire someone, but hey it kept me working....now I need to hire someone, I am so overwhelmed!!!

xoxo

<3 Karissa

Take a Second and Relax!

HOLY CRAP!!  I can not begin to explain how busy we have been this month.  It is absolutely crazy what we have put ourselves through.

We moved into the house on May 12th.  We were pretty settled that weekend, minus our new furniture and some artwork.  We've slowly been getting artwork, and our furniture was delivered a week after we moved in.  It was delivered on the day of my AMAZING bridal shower.

My wonderful Aunt Terry and cousin Chelsea hosted it for me at Food Dance.  Probably one of the most amazing restaurants in Kalamazoo.  The turn out was great.  I am so lucky to have so many friends and family who love me and were there to celebrate the day with me!  Those who couldn't come were missed dearly!!  I had so much yummy food, and the decorations we awesome!

When I got home from the shower I will tell you I was soooo overwhelmed.  I had just moved in and gotten everything where I wanted it to be, and now I had all of this stuff to find places for.  The gifts sat in the living room for about 2 days while I tried to figure out where I was going to put everything!

Lucky for us (not very smart of us though) we decided to have our housewarming party this weekend.  We were forced to find homes for all of the gifts, and start hanging artwork.  Three completely packed weekends makes for a very tired Karissa.  Our party turned out AWESOME.  We had around 20 people and had some amazing food.  We'll be eating leftovers for 2 weeks, and we don't need to visit the liquor store for about a year!  We woke up Saturday morning extremely sad it was due to rain all day.  I was so upset I wanted to call off the party.  We have an awesome deck and great outdoor area, we had lawn games, and all of our patio furniture all set to go, and at 8am it was looking pretty gloomy outside.  Somehow, someone was looking over us...we didn't get a drop of rain, and the sun came out and we were able to host our party outside without a hitch!  I feel like such a grown up, our first really party!  Someone asked us if we were going to set up beer pong...um no not in my house.  We're adults, lets act like it!

It has been one CRAZY month!  I looked at the calendar today and realized...we are exactly 2 months away from the wedding.  We've sent out invitations...(Stuffing invitations blows) and we've already gotten some RSVP cards back!  I'm getting so excited, but slowly stressed, because I'm beginning to realize I need to start tying up details, and I have so much work stuff going on as well..I'm getting overwhelmed.  I don't want to wish this time away, but I'm ready for it to just be here!

Hope everyone has had a great start to summer, and enjoyed the long weekend!

<3 Karissa

HOLY BUSY

This is going to be super quick, because I have a ton of crap to do.

The past week has been absolutely NUTS.  We moved out of the apartment and into the house.  Holy overwhelming!  I have moved every year for the past 6 years, and I'm so glad to say this is the last move for a good long time!  In the process of the move I lost my camera cord..so pictures to come later, and a much more detailed info about the move.

We have so much landscaping to do.  It's actually exciting starting the research on what types of plants and flowers we're going to plant!

Yesterday was my bridal shower.  It was so nice.  We had it at Food Dance in Kalamazoo!  I loooooove that place, the company was great and I got some wonderful gifts too!  I was sooo overwhelmed when I got home with everything.  We had just gotten the house all situated and then I walk in with a boat load of stuff, and we had to find a place for everything.  We banged that all out today.  The house is back to looking pretty darn good.

We're going to spend all week getting ready for a housewarming party next Saturday.  Hoping for good weather!!

More later, with pictures, as soon as I find the cord!

xoxo
<3 Karissa

Tick Tock

Boy is there a lot to discuss.  Now that we're officially homeowners...WE WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN OUR FREAKIN HOUSE!!!!  We agreed to take possession 14 days after closing, but while at the closing our sellers assured us that we would have the keys mid week, or at the latest Sunday (today).  Wellllll we have no keys.  Apparently they went with a big name lender, and they are dragging their feet getting all of their paper work done.  They were hoping to close Friday and possibly still get us the keys today.  When I ran into our seller at work Friday evening, she said it was a no go.

I know they are frustrated.  They have done everything they can, and the bank is just being plain old dumb right now.  I can't imagine how it would feel to be homeless.  They literally have no home right now.  They had to do all sorts of extensions on their closing for their house.  How stressful!!!  As much as I feel sorry for them, when Friday morning at 8:00am comes around I will be knocking on the door for the keys to MY HOUSE!!!

As you can see we're more than ready to go...so are the cats!!

We have pretty much everything packed that can be packed, we'll throw everything else into boxes at the last minute.  We wanted the keys early so we could spend this whole week cleaning, but it looks like we're going to be cleaning around boxes.

In wedding news things are starting to pick up.  We're in the home stretch of the wedding, and it's time to get our act together!  My shower is in 2 weeks!  I am beyond excited for that!  My invitation for my scrap book came yesterday in the mail!!  I'm so excited to see everyone!  We have all of our gifts purchased for everyone.  We worked on address labels all week long.  I'm not looking forward to stuffing invites but it has to be done.  Wedding invitations will be headed out in about 2 weeks!!!  I can't believe it!!  It's sooooo close!

That's all for now!

<3 Karissa

It all comes crashing down....

Ok so the title is a little dramatic, but I'm feeling a little dramatic right now.  Good news first.  If you've been keeping up with Facebook the past week, you know we're officially homeowners now!  How exciting, and scary all at the same time.  The closing was so weird.  I was so nervous for some reason.  Our realtor ended up redeeming herself by buying us a gift off of our registry, and offering to host our housewarming party!  Heck yea!!  She wants to foot some of the bill, I am all for it!  We like her as a person, as a realtor she is a little bit of a flake!

In other news (like the wedding)  OH YEA, we're getting married, totally forgot about that with all the house crap!  I got a lovely email from our wedding coordinator this week stating some "wonderful, and exciting news"  Our venue has merged with a new catering company.  Can you imagine what my heart did when I read that line.  It stopped.  It fell to my stomach.  I thought I died for a second.  Luckily she followed that sentence up with, you can keep all your menu selections from our catering company, or you may choose from the new menu.  Welllllll, fantastic.  I've already ordered, paid for, and received our wedding invitations..including the RSVP cards which have our menu options on them.  Things better not change!!!!

She also assured me that they were keeping their executive chef, so the food we tasted would be the same.  However, if this chef doesn't like new management he could up and quit..which will change everything.  Fan-flippin-tastic.  She also told me, I now have 2 points of contact, someone for food, and her for the venue. AWESOME.  One more person to throw into the loop.  One more cook in the kitchen.  GAHHHHH. 

I calmed down, and responded to her email...this isn't the death of our wedding, things will be fine.  Friday I got another email...
Here are my new issues:

Our Wedding is the same weekend the new Batman movie comes out...so not only with the theaters be packed with whack jobs (lets be honest, those batman fans are slightly nuts and obsessive)  We can't have our rehearsal in a theater without paying for another theater rental.  I'll be damned if I pay $500.00 for a 30 minute rehearsal.  I am SOOOOOOOO PISSED.  I figured we don't need a long rehearsal it's not hard to walk in a line, but since it's kind of an unconventional setting I would like for everyone to practice at least once.  We get a rehearsal, but in a random room.  AWESOME.

Our coordinator told me she "doesn't work weekends"  UMMM hold the phone.  You are a wedding coordinator..how can you not work weekends?  Who the heck is going to be running our shindig?  Apparently I have to ask someone to help with the ceremony.  How much are we paying the place??   Needless to say I'm now fuming reading this email.  Finally the kicker...the catering company that they are now working with, is the company that we intentionally avoided while selecting our venue.  We went to a venue and saw this company, and didn't like them at all.  They were touching glasses with bare hands, they were touching silverware with no gloves, and one of them made a rude comment under her breath about something I said, and I happened to hear it.  I want nothing to do with this staff.  I am hoping they are still going to at least use Celebration Cinema's serving staff.  If not I'm going to pitch an epic fit.

Everything was going so smooth, everything was moving along at a perfect pace, and then wham, this hits us.  I'm hope it doesn't turn into a hot mess...

In more news.. Packing sucks.  I always forget how much I hate to pack.  The apartment is a mess, there is crap everywhere, my hands have this dust/dirt film feeling all over them.  We can't really clean because there are boxes every.  The cats love it..they have kitty jungle gyms everywhere..but for us it's no fun!

Enjoy the week, I can't believe it's already May.  Also I just realized when I previewed this the punctuation is weird... the exclamation points look like the letter l..I'll make changes soon.

<3 Karissa

Budget....What Budget??!!

When we started planning for our "big day" we both knew we didn't want to go overboard on our budget.  Neither one of us could ever imagine spending obscene amounts of money on just one day.  That being said, we also knew we wanted to have a day to remember, something special, something that was ours, and something that people would remember.  There are things in the budget that you don't really need, and there are other spots in the budget that you really shouldn't skimp on.  Here's my list of the things you can cut or cut back on, and things where you're money should be spent.

Food/Drink:  You're on the verge of feeding a fairly large amount of people (anything over 20 is large considering you're footing the bill.  I'm not saying 20 is a large wedding, however, it's a lot of people to pay for)  Don't go cheap on the food, don't try to cook it yourself, or hire someone you know.  That puts a huge amount of pressure on everyone involved.  Leave it to the professionals.  They are pros for a reason, they've studied the art of fine food, and they cook for large amounts of people all the time.  One way to keep the costs low (and very easy to predict once you have your final count)  is to pick items on the menu that all cost the same thing.  Pick a meat, and chicken plate that are both $15.00 rather than a steak that's $20, and a chicken that's $16.  This way no matter what entree people select, you'll have a round about idea of what you'll be spending.  It's also wise to choose a more common cut of beef.  Rather than ordering prime rib for everyone...why not pick a 6oz sirloin (it's about 5 dollars cheaper).

In regards to your drinks...There are so many options for your bar.  Personally I think cash bars are tacky (gasp) or insert eye roll here, I don't like the idea of making my guests pay for drinks.  If you can't afford a hosted bar, then by no means should you put yourself in a situation where you're going to be in debt forever to pay your bar tab, but if you can host your bar...it's a nice treat for you guest.  If you're scared people will take advantage of an open bar (they most likely will)  there are a few options to keep costs low.  You can offer drink tickets.  Pay for each of your guests to have 2 drinks on you.  Your catering company will put "drink tickets" at there place setting and they may use those at the bar to pay for their drinks.  Once their tickets are gone, then they can pay for the rest of their drinks.  Chances are some people will get drink tickets from the non drinkers and will still get away with not paying for a single drink. 

     Another option for your bar is to host beer and wine only, and make it a cash bar for all mixed drinks.  This way you're still covering people, and if they want other beverages then they can pay for it themselves.  The final options is to host the bar but pay based on consumption rather than pay per person.  If you know you have a mixed crowed of drinkers and non drinkers, pay per drink rather than per head.  This way you aren't paying 20 bucks for people that aren't going to drink anything.  **warning***  If you know your wedding will have lots of drinkers...pay per head, otherwise if you pay based on consumption you could really shoot yourself in the foot and end up owing a lot more, than if you just paid per person.


Photography:  Don't go cheap on your pictures.  This is the one thing you'll have forever, you'll look back on these for the rest of your life.  Don't let your Aunt Sally who takes pictures as a hobby do your wedding pictures.  You can save money by hiring a photographer that will give you the rights to your pictures, and will give them to you on a disk.  If you have your photographer make you albums you'll be paying upwards of $600.00 for a photo album...when you could make one yourself on shutterfly.  Find a photographer that will edit, and photo shop, and change the color on your pictures, and then give you the CD.  These photographers are everywhere!! 
**On that note, don't waste your money on the disposable cameras on the tables.  You'll end up with inappropriate pictures, and half of them won't turn out. People get picture happy when they get drunk, and they tend to take horrible pictures once they have consumed too much!



Chair Covers and Linens:  Some people will disagree with me on this one, but I believe everyone should spend the money on chair covers.  Banquet chairs are some of the ugliest chairs on the planet (I don't know who designs them, but they should be unemployed)  Chair covers are a great way to transform your entire venue for a few hundred dollars.  You can save money by agreeing to put them on yourself (If your rental company will allow that)  you can also save by not getting a sash to tie around the chair.  I have always said the one place I will not compromise is chair covers...lucky for me Aaron completely agrees!  You can also save money by using the catering companies linens.  Yes it would be nice to have floor length linens in different colors, with runners down the table, but if it's going to stretch you, don't do it!

Favors:  Don't buy your wedding guests expensive favors.  I hate to break it to you, but 9 times out of 10 they forget them at the end of the night, or they find them useless and leave them behind, for you to have 100 extra (insert favor here).  A way to leave your guests with a little gift of appreciation is to make a donation to a favorite charity.  The charity will send you little cards with information on them about the organization and you can place those at all of your tables, or treat them to a little snack.  We're hosting a candy buffet.  Giant jars of all of our favorite candy with little take home boxes.  Something that is much cheaper, and most people will enjoy the candy.  A lot of catering companies will make special deserts for you too.  You can have cookies with your monogram wrapped up and at each setting.  These types of things will get used, or taken.  Many Mommies and Daddies take things like that home for the kiddos, who didn't attend the wedding!  Everyone wins!

Menus:  Don't make them, don't waste you time or money.  The food isn't going to change whether they have a menu in front of them or not, so don't tempt people, by showing them all of the main entree selections again.  They'll try to change their order.  Nothing is more annoying to a server than when a guest says  "can i get the chicken instead?"  "no, no you can't you pre ordered, so you get what you get"  They had a chance to see a menu, when they RSVP'd.  Plus it's a free meal, suck it up! Menus end up being a waste of space, and you'll be sad at the end of the night to see all your hard work, crinkled up, spilled on, and left to be forgotten.

That's all for now, there are more budget saving tips coming!

<3 Karissa

Top Five Dream Wedding Locations

Soooo judge all you want, Aaron and I played the Mega Millions when it was at 640 million.  Yea our chances of winning were slim to none, but what the hell??  We talked about everything we would do with all of the money.  It got me thinking, if we had all of the money in the world, where would I have my dream wedding?  Mind you, I love where we are having our wedding, it's going to be amazing.  However, there are places that are totally out of our reach for one reason or another (mostly money) and I will only ever dream of these places.

5) The San Diego Zoo:  I have always thought it would be fun to get married in a zoo, Aaron said no to the John Ball Zoo because "It will smell".  But San Diego is beautiful and I have heard amazing things about the zoo.  Bliss!

4) Nappa Valley: 
Aaron and I love wine, we love going wine tasting, I love learning about wine.  How amazing would it be to have this view? 






3) Italy:  Two words, It's Italy.
 Enough said.

2) Mackinac Island: I love the island.  There is something magical about that island, with no cars, and everything so pure.  I have ALWAYS wanted to go on a carriage ride.  Aaron has tried on multiple occasions to take me, but it's never worked out.  I would love to get married on the island with the bridge and water in the background, and then hop on a carriage and take a ride with my groom!  The Grand Hotel is amazing, beautiful, and screams elegance.  It's so expensive to have a wedding there, but that would be my pick! 

1) No amount of money could ever make my number one dream location happen.  It's so sad, and many people have heard me go on and on about this place.  Brook Lodge will always be a special place to me.  I can not describe to anyone (unless you experience the Lodge yourself) how absolutely amazing and special that place is.  It will always hold a place in my heart.  I worked with AMAZING people.  I had the dream job (I have yet to find a job that comes even close to that job)  I got to go to work in the most beautiful location ever.  Everyone that worked there, got married there, or worked as a vendor there, knew how absolutely amazing, and special Brook Lodge was.  It breaks my heart every time I think about how it's a big ol' piece of property now sitting and doing nothing.  All of those empty buildings sitting there with so many memories...it's horrible. When I worked there I had my wedding all planned out.  Never in a million years did I ever think that I wouldn't be having my wedding there.  I knew I would be in good hands with that entire staff.  My friend Loni was married there.  Long story short we had mutual friends and I ended up working on her wedding at the Lodge, before we even knew we had mutual friends.  Here is Loni's wedding story.  Note the pictures:  She had an awesome photographer Loni's Brook Lodge Wedding

 
Beautiful Bride, and a beautiful background.

So now you have it.  Everyone always likes to sit around a dream.  I've heard the question a million times "If you could do it differently what would you change?"  I can't, and won't be changing anything, but these are the top 5 places that will never be. :)

Go check out my friend Loni's blog about life with a little one!  It's an amazing blog, that tells it how it is! www.babypmakesthree.blogspot.com  

<3 Karissa

Hurry up and Wait.

I've said it a million times.  We're in limbo right now.  There is a lot of waiting going on, and it's getting annoying.  Waiting for the appraisal, waiting for the underwriter, waiting to sign papers, waiting for wedding stuff to pick back up.  I am so ready to get a move on everything.  We've been saying we need to hurry and get (insert project here) done, then we get it done, and we're left just sitting around waiting some more.

We had the appraisal a couple weeks ago, and found out all this information this week.  Everything turned out great, no renegotiating or anything.  So now we're just waiting...to hear when we actually close on the house.  Once we do that it's more waiting for our move in date.  Everything is going to happen all at once and I'm getting a little overwhelmed. 

This is what the next few weeks look like
Mid April Close on house
May 1-5 Hopefully in our house
Mid May Bridal shower, sending wedding invites, finalizing wedding details
Late May House warming party

It doesn't seem like a whole lot of bullet points, but when you think about what each of these things entail, I'm getting stressed.  To top it off, our Apartment complex is being 100% difficult right now with us breaking our lease.  We know that we have to break our lease, and we understand that there is a buy out fee, but they're telling us since we haven't been in the lease for 6 months (never mind the fact that this is Aaron's sixth lease with this complex) we can't give our 30 days.  Meaning, we're left with paying rent through August and our house payment.  They said there is a waiting list, but it doesn't matter, because we haven't been in our current lease for six months.  So our option is to let our apartment sit empty for 4 months and pay rent on it anyway.  It doesn't seem to make good business sense to me to leave our place empty and be stubborn about us leaving before our 6 months and potentially losing business because people don't want to wait all summer for a place.  Sure they're making rent off of us even though we aren't there, but what happens when we stop paying rent, and all the people on the waiting list that possibly could have gotten in in May, have found other places to live?  It's so annoying.  I have never heard of such complicated rules.  Yes we will pay extra to break our lease, most places have some sort of rule like that, but to tell us "you can't give us your 30 days" is ridiculous to me.  It makes me want to pull my hair out.

We have has such a busy couple of weeks.  We went up north last weekend for a shooting weekend (I learned how to shoot a gun)  it's interesting.  It's a scary powerful feeling...not sure if I liked it, or if it scared the bejesus out of me.  This weekend, we went to the in laws for Easter dinner. It's always fun heading out there, we have tons of property to ride the quads, huge game room with shuffle board, pool and ping pong, and great family to enjoy it all with!  I've been busy taking classes for my CDA for work.  As soon as I get my qualifications I will get a raise and be officially and Lead teacher.  Such a good feeling!!

I've tried like 600 times to upload a video of the house from my flip camera.  I can't get it to work.  I'm beyond annoyed.  Sorry!!! 

<3 Karissa

4 Months...Where has Time Gone?

HOLY COW!  If you follow the ticker at the top of the blog, you'll see it says 4 moths and 2 days until the wedding.  I can't believe it's so close, it's going to be July in the blink of an eye!  We have been doing so much these last few weeks it's been a blur.  I forgot to mention that we did order our invitations last weekend!  I love them, they are so simple and unique.  I have never seen anything like them!  We spent the weekend preparing for the new house (that still technically isn't ours)  We went furniture shopping for ideas, we spend Friday night at Home Depot.  Gone are the days we bar hop on Friday night.  Dinner and a couple cocktails and Home Depot with my man was just as fun!

We've pretty much got everything picked out, and a budget set in place for everything that we need.  We added to our registry, and once we are moved in we'll probably add more to our registry too.  Sunday Aaron was AMAZING and went with me to see the Hunger Games, I had been begging alllllll weekend, and he didn't want to go.  I figured the craze would have died down by Sunday afternoon..boy was I wrong!  It was packed, but he was a trooper and even asked questions..so I know he got into it!

Today we had our inspection.  I was so flippin nervous, that this house was too good to be true.  Good news!!!  There are no red flags and our amazing inspector said there is nothing that we need to renegotiate, or anything major that needs to be addressed anytime soon!  While we were at the house (we were there for over 3 hours)  I decided to see how this lady organized her kitchen.  I opened a cabinet and found a baby bottle with an Appletree Logo on it.  There are tons of Appletrees around, but it got my brain working.  Later I found all their wedding pictures (I swear I wasn't being a snoop)  they were on the coffee table, clearly there for people to look at.  When I opened one of the books I found Appletree Apple Grams (notes we keep about the kids each day)  I looked at the bottom and the note was signed by a teacher at my school.  When I got into work I asked the last name of one of the families...turns out we're buying their house.  WHAT A SMALL WORLD. 

Now all we have to do is get through the appraisal, and hopefully we can close early! 

Not much more on the wedding front.  We're just at a stand still, nothing much to be done right now.  I'm excited to get the ball rolling on the wedding again, of course that will be right when we start moving!

<3 Karissa

Home Sweet Home

We've done it!!!!!  We found a house!  I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited I can't even think straight.  Honestly it hasn't been that horrible of a process.  We spent 2 Saturdays looking and a couple weekdays looking, and we managed to find a house.  We actually managed to find two houses, put an offer on one, and backed out after Aaron's dad looked at it.  I know I said I hate hearing the "everything happens for a reason" stuff...but obviously it does, because had we gotten the first house, we wouldn't have ended up with our dream home!

I can't even begin to describe how perfect this house is.  We meet up with both of our dads on Saturday and went to house number one.  It was cute, but both noticed way too much work.  We took a nice little drive into Kentwood and drove up to the cutest house I have ever seen.  Everyone had the same reaction from the outside, our "drive in" was good (which is so important to Aaron) the yard was cute and the house looked great.  We all walked in, and it was almost like our entire group knew at the same time this was our house.  Everything about it screams us.  It's the perfect size, three legal bedrooms (plus a room without a window but will be a great forth room)  The kitchen is huge, the backyard is amazing, has a family and living room and 2 full bathrooms.  Best of all, all of the appliances (including new front loading washer and dryer) are staying!!!

The Master is awesome a walk in closet that opens into  into the master bathroom with double sinks and tons of storage!!  I could sit here and rave and rant about the house, I won't though!  We went back to look at the house on Sunday, put our offer in on Monday, and became homeowners on Monday night!!  (Pending inspection)

This whole experience has been very eye opening.  We didn't fight much, we did catch ourselves bickering back and forth when it came to this house  4434 Summertime Ct!  I think we bickered because we loved it so much, and we're scared we were going to lose it, so I pushed to just "do it" while Aaron wanted every bit of information about the price, location, bills, everything...I'm a just do it type of person, and usually he is too, which is what caused the bickering.  This is such a huge step in our relationship.  I'm so happy we were able to get this done now.  I was worried the process would drag out and we would be moving into a house 2 weeks before the wedding. 

Sometimes I still feel like I'm 20 years old and have to remind myself..you're an adult get it together.  Now that I'll be pulling into my own garage, and mowing the lawn (ok lets be real Aaron will be doing that) and painting rooms I finally feel like a real "grown up"   I can't wait to move in and make it our own!  Lucky for us we have a bridal shower and wedding to help us furnish our house!!!!


The Dream   The pictures don't do it justice, but you get the picture!!

<3 Karissa

An Ocean of Emotion

Ohhhh lordy what a weekend!!!  We put an offer in on a house on Thursday evening, and were told we would hear back by Tuesday.  Of course I was on pins and needles all day on Friday.  It was the longest day EVER!!  We put a lot of thought and effort into our offer, and we were really excited about it.  While we waited to hear back about our offer, we packed ourselves up and headed to Detroit to see Aaron's cousin, wife and baby! 

It was the first time I had met them, John is in our bridal party, so I was pretty nervous.  Luckily everything went great!  I loved them, and they have one of the cutest babies I have ever seen in my entire life.  I made a new little best friend!  Hopefully they liked me just as much!  We headed out to a Pistons game.  My first one, I was pretty excited.  We had AMAZING seats I think we were about 7 rows form the court!  Sooo much fun. 

On our way into the game my phone rang and guess who...our realtor, with the counter offer.  Except, it wasn't really a counter offer they dropped $400.00 from their original asking price.  UHHHH excuse me??  What a slap in the face.  We decided to sleep on it and just enjoy the game.  On our car ride home we decided to have "the conversation"  awesome time and place for a real serious conversation.  We couldn't get away from each other so we had to hash everything out.  Let's just say it was a tense few miles.  We ultimately decided that we were going to hold firm on our offer.  They don't want to negotiate with us, we didn't want to negotiate with them.  Once we got that convo out of the way, we started second guessing ourselves.  We asked to see the place one more time before we made a final offer.  We went for a drive trying to find new areas to look at, and couldn't find anything that we liked that we could get for such an awesome price.  Suddenly Aaron wanted to reconsider, and said maybe we should just pay what they are asking.  It was a day full of back and forth and very mixed feelings.

Aaron is really stuck on this whole "I don't want them to win" thing, however, we know they aren't winning.  They couldn't come down from their offer since they owe so much on the house, and have already purchased another house (smart planning on their part!) even with their asking price they were still having to bring another 20,000 to the bank to make good on their loan.  I feel for them, and my goal isn't to screw their deal, however, it's not our fault that they got themselves into the situation, and we're trying not to get ourselves in that exact same situation.  We ended up deciding to go through the house one more time tomorrow, and look at EVERYTHING  Aaron's dad is coming so we have an extra set of eyes, and then we'll make a final decision.

This experience is so hard.  We aren't having issues agreeing on what we like, we're having issues on deciding how much to to spend!  I know "Everything happens for a reason" but no one wants to hear that when something doesn't go the way they want it do.  I know everyone is trying to be supportive, but I swear if this deal falls through I don't want to hear anyone say "everything happens for a reason, you'll find something"  I know that, but in the moment I just want to be sad.  My mom and I were talking about that saying, she put it so perfectly.  She said, people only say that when they don't have anything useful to say! 

We got a flip video camera for Christmas, and I can not for the life of me figure out how to upload the videos on here.  When I figure it out I'll post videos of the houses we've been looking at!

We had a wonderful weekend, everything (besides the house) was so much fun!  It was nice getting away form GR for a night!

Have a wonderful week!!!

<3 Karissa

Let the Search Begin

I've always been the type of person who gets an idea in my head, and then I run with it.  I don't stop until I get exactly what I want.  The project, idea, thought (whatever it may be) consumes me until I figure out exactly how to accomplish the goal.  I've also always been a very spontaneous person.  I don't dwell on things very long.  I don't sit around and come up with a plan, I just do.  I want a tattoo...I get one no thinking.  Once you think about things, you can always find a reason to talk yourself out of it.  Obviously some decisions take some time (I'm not irresponsible).  I never thought I would find someone who has these exact same traits.  Aaron and I have a completely spontaneous relationship and we don't stop until we get what we want.

I remember earlier in the summer we had talked about getting a kitten and the topic kind of went away.  On July 5th we woke up and I said lets get a kitten today.  We spent the whole day going place to place in search of an itty bitty, sure enough that afternoon we brought the little bean home! 

We've pretty much had the same attitude about buying a house.  The topic came up, we played around with the idea for about a week, and then spent this whole week looking at houses online, finding a realtor and creating a list of places we wanted to see.  Aaron is just as consumed with this process as I am.  I would get emails at 4am from him about houses he found, so I know he was searching on his lunch at work too.  Saturday we spent the whole day looking at houses...no wait we didn't look at houses we looked at CRAP.  Everything that we picked sucked.  There was only one house that we would even consider.  Of course it's above where we told our realtor we wanted to be...but we could offer less, and be within budget.  This house was move in ready, and done exactly how I would have done it.  It has a beautiful backyard.  All hardwood floors, a huge living room, the most amazing finished basement and 3 bedrooms.  The issues we had were the bedroom sizes, and apparently Aaron hates trees, and is scared they are going to fall on the house.  WHATEVER.  I seriously fell in love with this house.  Aaron had to really talk me down from my high.  Telling me that it wasn't worth the asking price, and that we could find a lot bigger space for a lot less.  
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1061-Elmwood-Dr_Jenison_MI_49428_M46997-52193  This is the house we loved yesterday.  It doesn't have very many pictures, and I tried to upload a video of it, but it won't work...sorry!

We came home feeling very discouraged.  We didn't really know what to do.  We were pretty much at each others throats about everything so I needed to get away.  When I got home Aaron had a whole new list of house put together.  We raised our price range a bit, and knowing now what we really want I think our new list actually has a lot of potential.  I told Aaron that I had a feeling that our house was on that list.  We did a little Sunday driving today and drove by most of the houses on our new list.  The curb appeal of all of them has me very excited to see the insides.  Like I said we don't stop until we get what we want..I have a feeling this process won't take very long because it has now totally consumed us.  Poor wedding...getting shunned.  I feel bad..hopefully we can get this all figured out, and I can go back to only stressing about a wedding!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

<3 Karissa

House Hunters

YIKES!  To add to the stress of planning a wedding (which to be honest hasn't been that stressful) Aaron decides now is the perfect time to buy a house.  We've talked about buying a house, and for a while we both agreed that we didn't want to put down roots in Michigan, so we would continue to rent and look into moving after the wedding.  Now that the wedding is getting closer and the talk of babies comes up more often the idea of having an infant in another state where we don't know anyone is scary.

So we made the executive decision to torture ourselves and plan a wedding and house hunt all at the same time!  Sometimes we are so smart!  All weekend we've been glued to our computers looking for houses.  We can both agree on style, and we don't need something that is brand spankin new (we want to do some projects)  but we also don't want to move into a gross run down shack.  The problem we're going to have is, Aaron knows all of the neighborhoods since he grew up here and also worked for Two Men and a Truck..he has seen the good, bad, and the ugly.  When I find a house I like he will shoot it down as soon as he hears the street name..I have a feeling this is going to take a really long time.

It's an exciting process, thinking about all of the different things that we're going to be able to do to a house, and getting away from our super annoying neighbors!

Besides being attached our computers this weekend, we didn't do much.  A little shopping, I got an Iphone finally.  I have hated all of my Android phones and I have never heard anyone complain about their Iphone, so I broke down and got one..I hope it was a good choice!  I promised Aaron I would also thin out my wardrobe a bit...it's a little extreme.  So today I cooked breakfast, went to the store, did laundry, and organized the closet.  I got rid of 50 tops..I was so proud of myself...Aaron was happy, but I think he wishes I would have gotten rid of more..the closet is still stuffed!

I feel like I have been cheating on the wedding, by not paying much attention to it.  The big stuff is done, we're on to the little stuff at this point, so it's getting done slowly.  I have an appointment to make our invitations in two weeks!  That should be really fun!  I had a horrible dream last night that we sent out our invitations on a Monday, and our wedding was that Thursday so no one had time to RSVP and we spend the 3 days before the wedding calling people asking what they wanted to eat so we could give our numbers to our banquet hall!  I don't know why I'm having all these bad dreams but it's starting to stress me out!

Hopefully we get to start looking at houses this week!  I don't want to be moving 2 weeks before the wedding!!!

<3 Karissa

Back in the Swing of Things

It's been a couple of weeks, because we have been doing absolutely nothing these past couple of weeks.  Life has been pretty boring!  Last weekend we went to Battle Creek so I could have a dress fitting....yikes.  It pretty much fits perfect which stresses me out.  I can't gain an ounce. 

We spent most of last weekend driving around Grand Rapids looking for tattoo shops that weren't going to charge us an arm,leg and lung for tattoos...no such luck.  We both want to get each others lip prints tattooed onto each other.  These are fairly small (no bigger than a fifty cent piece) and everywhere is charging about 100 bucks..um no thanks.  I'll wait and go to New Addiction where they won't kill me on the price. 

Valentine's  day was quite the surprise for me!  We weren't planning on doing anything since there's a wedding coming up.  I got into my car on my lunch and there was a flower arrangement sitting in my seat!  I was so surprised.  I have never gotten anything like that for V-day.  When I got home there was a present wrapped on the counter for me too.  I got a DVD and a bridal memory book that I had been wanting!  I was so excited!  Aaron also took me out to dinner.  All in all even though it is a ridiculous holiday it was still a lot of fun.

During the week I got our flower quote (which I have been dreading) and lucky for us it's just under $400.00!!!  I was so excited.  I'm not a fan of a whole bunch of fresh flowers everywhere.  The smell is too overwhelming so I went with just the basics.  Bridal bouquets, bouts, and a couple other things.  We don't have much use for flowers anywhere else either!  I was so excited I was thinking another grand at least!  Wooo hooo! On the down side we got our catering contract back with the estimate for food and everything...holy 6 grand, and that's not even the bar.  I'm trying oh so hard not to go crazy with this wedding.  Spending a zillion dollars on one day is not work it.

Saturday we went to Aaron's moms house.  They redid the basement into a big game room with a pool table and shuffel board table and sports bar.  We were also there for his mom's birthday.  We had a lot of fun drinking playing games and hanging with the family.  We also got some really exciting news.  Aaron's mom and long time boyfriend are engaged!!  We're pretty excited for them!

Wedding dilemmas  We're trying to think of cool groomsmen gifts without buying the typical things i.e. flask shot glass.  We're looking for unique things..suggestions?

Bachelorette party...I'm really not into the whole party idea.  I have 2 bridesmaids that aren't even close to being 21, I don't want to leave them out of the activities, but I'm not really sure what to do.  The whole idea of wearing some sort of sash and cheap veil and doing some random scavenger hunt at bars does not sound fun to me at all.  Plus I'm not a huge drinker.  I like to have a drink here and there, but I'm not into the shoving shots down my throat.

Ohhh so many things to think about.  We're down to finalizing everything...oh what fun!!

<3 Karissa

Sunday Funday

What a FANTASTIC weekend.  We didn't have a single plan this weekend so we lounged and did whatever we wanted.  We started our Friday by finishing a game we started a while ago.  I found this Bride and Groom challenge game at Barnes and Noble and thought it would be fun.  We got it a couple weekends ago and started the game.  Friday night we answered questions about each other and tallied up the score...guess who rocks!?  ME  I totally won!  I will give Aaron credit, he was only a couple of points behind me.  Part of the game was to come up with contracts for what the winner gets...so my prize was, shopping!  I got a nice new robe and a new book!  I also get a "romantic" night out soon.  Hopefully that involves the carriage ride downtown I have been dying to take!!  Here's the link to the game in case anyone is interested.  I think it would be fun for married couples too!
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bride-groom-challenge-elizabeth-lluch/1008810770?ean=9781934386149&itm=1&usri=bride+and+groom+games

Saturday we got up with no plans at all.  We did a little wedding shopping.  Can you believe that Aaron has never been to Hobby Lobby?  We had so much fun at the store.  We actually found stuff for our Sand Ceremony!  I didn't want to buy a kit, they all look the same, and they aren't special at all.  We found a decanter at Macy's that is so unique I'm so excited to use it!!

 We have rented 3 movies in the past 2 weekends and they have all SUCKED.  Bridesmaids (totally over rated)  Straw Dogs (Just plain boring and long)  Hangover 2 (I'm sorry what was all the hype about?)  we are 0 -3 right now.  I would love suggestions for some GOOD movies!

Last thing on my mind that's really been bugging me.  I have been reading a book about this couple that is getting divorced, there is so much on TV right now about couples splitting up and all that I'm freaking out.  I could never imagine being left, or the feeling of having someone tell you it's over.  It makes me sick to my stomach.  I realize that marriage is a choice and you have to work at a relationship to keep it new fun and exciting, but I'm also not stupid enough to think that marriage is forever...divorce is all around me.  I'm not saying that I'm expecting something bad to happen, but I've always been the type of person to dwell on the what ifs.  It just terrifies me that one day 10 years from now I could be sitting on the couch thinking I have a happy marriage and Aaron could walk in the house and say he fell out of love with me, and wants it to be over.  I have a very wise friend that has just recently been married that always tells me that everything we do is a choice, and you have to choose to make things work.  I don't know why this is bugging me so much, but I guess it's just one of those fears that I have.  Maybe it's completely normal to have these feelings, I'm just so happy right now, I don't ever want this feeling to end.

Any thoughts, or advice?

<3 Karissa