Early Wedding Surprises

We are trying to do things in our wedding that haven't been seen before - at least by us. I'm a very untraditional bride and I like fresh ideas. I like to put a twist on EVERYTHING. My fiance' thinks it's just a tad annoying, but I think it's what is going to make our wedding day "ours." So recently we have both been surprised with gifts from our works that we are going to incorporate into our wedding. :-) What is our wedding theme? Well I don't really know, but it's a little of everything. Rustic, vintage, baseball, fall, natural themed I guess. I don't have "colors" either... Anyways back to the surprise!

I was leaving for lunch the other day and one of the lawyers I work with came and told me she had just signed for a really big box that came for me from one our consultants out in California. I was terrified! The only thing I ever get in the mail from our consultants is more work. (Unless it's Christmas and then sometimes they send really good treats ;-) Anyways, I walked back into the office because now I was really anxious to see what they had to send me and how much work it was going to be. The box said it was from a weird name. I think it just said from "Bob" actually. I don't know a Bob from California so that was a little odd. At the same time one of my co workers told me to wait and walked off to go and get someone. I grabbed a knife and started opening the huge box and noticed one of our foresters coming around the corner. He asked me what was in the box, like he didn't know... Sneaky sneaky! This is what I found...

HUUUUUGE Pine Cones.... and just in case you can't tell how big they are...

That puts it in perspective.

I am so lucky to work with such great people! This particular forester remembered me saying a long time ago that I wanted a pine cone like the one he had in his office. I had never seen one so big, but I love them!! He sent me 11 huge cones for my wedding and they came from one of our properties in California. I am so lucky to have something that means so much and be able to use it in such a big way for my wedding. How am I going to use them you ask?

That's a surprise too...but I'll let you know before the wedding. I promise!

As if my husband's line of work could top this....they tried. :-)

I'll tell you more about that when I can get a good picture. It should be here in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!!

Family Dinner Thursdays

For the past couple of weeks our ATL friends, the fiance', and I have been getting together for family dinner. We started this tradition with a group of our friends we know here in Atlanta. We try to go every Thursday and usually the plan is to find a restaurant that has some sort of deal. The first night we joined everyone for some Sushi at Ra Sushi - Atlanta. We have been to the West Palm Beach Ra when it opened a couple of years ago. I'd definitely say the Atlanta one is much better, mainly because they don't serve carrots in their sushi, but also because Thursday from 5-7 there is a half price sushi menu. I apparently didn't get the "half-price menu," so our bill was a little higher. I guess I didn't hear everyone say several times, "Can you pass me the half-price menu?" Oh well... the next night out was a little cheaper...

 

  Family Dinner # 2 - we all met up at a local favorite- Fatt Matt's Rib Shack. What an experience. :-) When we went on the website we saw there would be a live band and amazing food. When we got there and tried to save a table there was literally not even a chair to save.  There might have been 10 tables in the whole restaurant. Ten tables that seat four people that is. The restaurant was a cafeteria style set up with very old school food. I think we even got a piece of Wonder Bread for our "toast."

 Take #1.... and then again with Whitters and Jordan :-)

Notice the awesome band in the back. We had no idea how they planned on setting up. The place is literally as big as my one bedroom apartment. Everyone had a good laugh about the Crypt Keeper band guy. Close up...

(Hint - he's the guy in the middle.) Also - what a great picture of Atlanta's version of Mt Rushmore. Classic...

We actually had a really great time at Fat Matt's. We stayed there almost three hours before heading out. 

Dinner #2 - Tonight our family mom (AKA Whitters, AKA Nipps) picked another great place in the Highlands. I don't remember what it was called, but they had half off crab legs, oysters and shrimp so we got there 5 minutes before the deal ended and ordered as much as we could. Not as many of our "family" joined us tonight, but we still had a great time and somehow racked up a $200 dollar bill between the 6-7 of us.

Another pretty fun night. This place had an amazing wrap around deck that sat up in the trees. It was a great environment with awesome music too. I ate most of the crab legs. MMmmmmm can't wait to go back. 

 I'll let you know where we go next week. It's been a fun little tradition we started and hopefully we will continue. It's definitely another reason I don't want to leave Atlanta if we do end up moving after we get married?!? Only time will tell.

I'm off to enjoy the amazing banana pudding I made earlier. Have a great night!!

Sloppy, but Amazing!!

A Tribute to Hunter

It's so hard to lose a dog.

Late Friday night my mom called me to let me know that our family dog had a really awful day and that he was no longer eating or drinking. When I visited the weekend before he seemed pretty old, but still happy. He muffed up a couple of barks for me when I got there. I tried to sing to him like I always did when I lived there, but he had completely lost his hearing and couldn't hear me. This is the last picture we took of him. 

These are things I remember about Hunter:

He would always bark in excitement whenever we came home to visit. 

He loved Kelly, our other family dog.

He used to go swimming with us all the way out in the middle of the river. If we forgot him he would swim the whole way out and then jump in the boat when he got there. 

My dad used to let him and Kelly run in the river till they were tired, then they would get in the boat and drift back. 

He always growled at me when he had a bone. He growled at me more than anyone actually. The doctor said it was part of putting me in "pecking order." It was his way of showing dominance.

Once he even protected the Christmas tree when we wrapped a bone for him. He laid there all night waiting to open his present.

He loved his walks down the lane. 

He was all in all just a really great dog. 

His nicknames were Hunter Bunter and Hunt. (Creative I know.)

He was my dad's best friend.

I wish I could remember more about him, but it's hard to think about him now that he's gone. 

I love you Hunter! I'll miss you buddy.

Wedding Dreams

I am hoping that the more bad dreams you have about your wedding the less likely they will come true…

Dream #1: Entailed me waking up on the day of my wedding and NOTHING was ready. We had a place we were getting married and we had some guests (mostly my family.) But we did not have a pastor, I did not have a dress, we did not have a photographer, and all my great ideas were just a thing of the past. I had no time to do anything. This is probably one of my biggest fears and probably because I am a huge procrastinator with certain things. (The wedding being one of them.) I really want my wedding to be a finished product so I can understand why I had this dream. So since we didn’t book our pastor my dad had to fill in. I also didn’t have anyone to do my hair so I had to straighten it. Didn’t get my nails done and had to wear a dress I found at the mall.

I am happy to report that I have booked my amazing photographer – Addilay Photography. Susan and I have become great friends and I am SOOO excited that she is shooting our wedding. We haven’t stopped receiving compliments on our engagement pictures. :-) Thank you Susan and Brandon!

I still have not booked my Pastor, hairdresser, nails, but I have ordered my dress!

Dream #2: Again I wake up and it’s my wedding day only this time we are at my parent’s house and the wedding is starting at 10am. Since my wedding is supposed to be at 3 or 4 (we haven’t decided yet), I was wondering the whole time why it was starting earlier. Again I didn’t have anything I wanted and this time there were no guests. I wonder why…since the wedding was at 10am.

So my dad walks me down the aisle past my family – the only guests – and then again, takes his place as the pastor. What a nightmare! After our short ceremony, my mom suggests we all go out to eat since there aren’t many people and skip the ceremony. I kept trying to make things ok in my mind until I found out that my parents tricked us to getting married earlier in the day so they had the rest of the day to do whatever they wanted. This would never happen, but I remember waking up furious!

(The real ceremony location.)

After this dream, I still haven’t booked a pastor or hair or nails. What am I thinking!?

Dream #3: (Last night) I had a dream that my wedding was only 2 days away. At this point I have a lot of my vendors booked, I have most of the ceremony decorations and I have paid the deposit on our super cute custom invitations from Hornbillhill. The only problem is I still haven’t sent the deposit to our florist – The Flower Post -  because I wanted to deliver it personally.  I also haven’t gotten any info on cakes. So the whole time I’m begging Shane to let us push the wedding back a couple of months so that I can get the invitations and send them out and get the rest of the wedding figured out. Again - no pastor. We didn’t actually get married in this dream because there was a huuuge storm and then I woke up. Thankfully I woke up!

(The invitation behind our invitation....hoping i'm not spoiling it, but I LOVE Jennifer's work!)

So there is a lot of motivation this week to get the ball rolling on several things I have been putting off. Here is the to do list:

1. Bring the florist her deposit, a CD I made her, and ask her to switch from Thistles to dried Lavender in the bridesmaids bouquets.

2. Meet with the videographer and book, because I have an instant great feeling about him.

3. Start researching our pastor and get in touch with the counselor who did our marriage counseling so we can finish the 10 week book four our counseling.

4. Book my hair appointment so I can talk to my super great hairstylist Kim and try to work out prices. I didn’t realize hair was soo expensive!

5. Figure out why our DJ friend hasn’t called.

6. Write my super sweet photographer an email to keep in touch! Love her!

7. Finish sending out Round 2 of the Save the Dates.

(Our baseball card STD, Front and Back)

Wow looks like I have my work cut out for me! Here’s to a super productive week!

Becoming a Trophy Wife with the Housekeeping Handbook..

I keep wondering when this whole blog situation will take off for me. Don’t get me wrong I love to blog, but sometimes it gets a little overwhelming. I feel like I have no time to sit down and write about life.

So here’s to round three and hoping I don’t strike out!

I have been reading this fabulous book (partly my inspiration for the return to blogger world). It’s called the Housekeeping Handbook by Martha Stewart. Yes, I am a Martha Stewart snob. I feel like everything she touches is gold. Not because her name is branded so well, but because she spends a lot of time doing research before she starts a project and definitely before she wrote this book. I have always wanted to be the wife/mom that kept her house in pristine order- where everything is right where you thought it would be, there were no stains in the carpet, and no clutter in the closets.

I can tell you right now that I am far from Martha Stewart status. I consider myself a beginner. My latest worries include:

1. My Chihuahua that is not house-broken and just turned 3 years old. (I adopted him.) He currently loves the leg of the table that sits in the middle of the living room. I have the cheapest carpet ever in my apartment and stains literally don’t come out nor can you see them unless you are suspecting something or smell something. I’ve tried EVERYTHING!

2. There is a black mold, maybe, I think…. building up in one corner of the shower. I tried Clorox shower cleaner, Scrubbing Bubbles, a scouring pad, Clorox regular – nothing is making this nasty stuff go away.

3. My disposal does not work right. I don’t know how to describe it. Maybe since my mom has an ultra powerful one I think they should all work that way, but mine is definitely not chopping up things fast enough. The kitchen sink fills up with everything and I literally have to spoon it down the drain. The good thing is that it doesn’t smell.

4. Strawberry Lemonade. Shane and I are trying out all these recipes to make this yummy drink. We are on a healthy kick trying not to drink soda or super sugary drinks. The problem is that he doesn’t like at least one ingredient I put in it every time I make a new recipe. I think the latest one was my favorite recipe, but he didn’t like the sparkling water in it. I even used the freshest produce from Whole Foods. Here’s the recipe by Emeril Lagasse:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

• 2 cups cold sparkling water or club soda

• Ice

• Mint sprigs, garnish

• Whole strawberries, garnish

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon peel and lemon juice, stir, and remove from the heat. Let cool completely, then strain into a clean pitcher.

In a blender, puree the pint of strawberries and add to the pitcher with the lemon juice. Stir well to combine and refrigerate until well chilled.

Add the sparkling water and stir well. Pour over glasses filled with ice and serve, garnished with mint and strawberries.

I’ll try to remember to give an update on how these issues are working themselves out. Tonight I am going to get the little one a new cage for his size so that I can start crate training him like he was a puppy. He still acts like one.

Well I’m off to the Posh Spot to get a well deserved mani/pedi. I think I'll do Lucky Lavendar ;-)

Have a great day!