Chica

We our now the proud parents of a darling little kitty named Chica who is 5 months old. We adopted her from the Humane Society on Election Day (yes we still made sure we voted that day of course). She is just the cutest little thing ever, with white fur and light orange ears (Chad says she looks like a devil cat from the back...haha) and a light orange tail. She never shows her claws, and she loves to cuddle. Last night as I was reading she was stumbling on the blankets on the bed and then came up to the crook of my neck and snuggled up right there and started purring immediately. That is love. I am so happy that we adopted this little bundle of furry sweetness, she makes our days and nights just that much more enjoyable. I'm sure I will have daily updates of how cute she is and how hilarious she is at the same time! The way they play, crawl in the weirdest spaces, and attack shoe laces is so funny! This is good parenting practice for Chad and I before we have the real deal one day! :)

Pieces of crap can win things too!!!

Last Friday on my way home from work I was listing to ZHT, which is weird because I normally don't really like that station's music (except their morning show with the Zoo I like them lots). Anyway, I have a fascination with media (probably because I graduated in Mass Media from the U) and radio and I love listening to morning shows and in my head I compare which DJ's are better than others. Normally I can't STAND listening to AJ on ZHT on my drive home from work, but for some reason I was and all of a sudden I heard "Be the 97th caller and win backstage passes to the Nickelback concert on the 20th!". I don't know what posessed me, but I was like I AM WINNING THOSE TICKETS and so I kept dialing the number over and over and over and over and over (you get the picture) again like 50 times and finally it started to ring! I had to pull over in the nearest parking lot because I was driving and that obvioulsy wasn't safe. Then AJ came on the phone and was like "hello you are our winner!". I started freaking out and screaming like I was 16 again! I'm sure an outside observer would have thought it was hilarious (that girl you see freaking out on her phone in her car haha). Anyway, he was like "so I guess your excited" and I was like "No you don't understand dude! My phone is like circa 1995 and I serioulsy dialed the number over and over again till it rang. I literally punched in the number each time and somehow I won!". He was like "wow I guess that proves even pieces of crap can win things!". I was like "um....yeah!!!!!". Anyway, I got the backstage passes and tickets and I am SOOOO excited! I don't know a ton of people that like Nickelback enough to want to see them in concert, but I seriously love them. I have never met a Rock Star and so I am sure I will get star struck (I always have when I have met famous people...which is silly I know) and probably ask for like 10 pictures! haha. I will definitely post them on here.

On a side note, I know I am HORRIBLE at posting pictures on this blog. I have no problem just blogging away, but the picture part I suck at. Not very good considering all people want to do on a blog is look at the pictures (who reads anymore haha jk). I promise I will get better at posting the pictures in the future! :)

San Jose Trip

Last week we left on Thursday night to go to San Jose to see one of Chad's best friend's Kevin and his wife Cheryl. I don't know what it was exactly (so many great things) but it was one of the most fun trips I have ever taken! I was heart broken to leave! When they dropped us off at the airport I seriously was getting teary eyed if you can believe it. Kevin and Cheryl are some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. One of those married couples you just love to be around and look up to as a wonderful relationship. First off, I have never been to San Jose but I have been to San Fran more times then I can count. The trip started out great with us landing in SFO (San Fran airport). We flew Jet Blue, which let me tell you is the best airline I have ever flown with! You get your own TV with cable and headphones in the seat in front of you! Plus, they give you tasty snacks (cookies or nuts) that actually were appealing and not disgusting. haha. When we landed we accidentally ended up in the International baggage claim and we had to find our way around (I don't know that airport really well and I ususally take BART into the city when I land there) to where the pick up was for domestic flights. I had only met Kevin like a handful of times for not that long, and I had never been in a car with him while he was driving, but let me tell you folks, BOY WAS THAT A TRIP!! Kevin is the fastest craziest driver EVER! I was silently praying the whole time we were in the car with him, which was a lot because we drove to Santa Cruz to the beach one day, down to Monterrey and then Carmel another day....so tons of driving. It finally got to the point that I just started laughing because he was yelling at everyone on the road and freaking out! I guess you had to be there...but Chad and I were DYING! Basically that whole trip we laughed our guts out....I hadn't seen Chad laugh that hard in a long time and it made me So happy to see him so happy. As promised I met little Davey the infamous cat, and I got lots of pictures of him! Normally I can't stand cats, but Davey is different...he is soft and sweet and is a spaz if you dangle his toys above his head! haha. On Saturday night I followed him around the whole house calling him "davey baby" (because that is the nickname Cheryl gave him) and picking him up and carting him around....I couldn't get enough of this little fur ball! Tomorrow I will post most of the pictures we took (not all of them because it was about 400....yeah I know...) but I will put up a few of the very best ones! I think my favorite time was when we were on the Pier in Santa Cruz and had been hot all day (perfect weather, 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky) and we had just eaten a lunch of oysters on the half shell and we stopped to listen to a bum sing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and play his guitar in honor of John Lennon's birthday. The pipes this guy had on him, and the music coming from his guitar was amazing. That is a talent I am more then happy to give a few dollars for! Each day was magical and easy going and so incredibly relaxing. The hospitatlity couldn't be beat, and each meal we were fed something delicious and way fancier than anything I ever expected! Needless to say, I felt I became really really close to Cheryl and Kevin and I am really excited to see them again and at the wedding!

It actually got colder the further up we went so I needed my hoodie!

Our prized posession...

such a hottie :)

The colors of the trees were gorgeous!

I love this picture....it is really cool :)

Oh he is such a dare devil!

I love this shot of Chad...he is so photogenic it's a crime!

Right by the river up a little ways from Log Haven

It was actually hot...hot enough to wear shorts up the canyon in October!

I love Fall

Last Saturday Chad and I took a motorcycle ride (possibly our last for the year) up Millcreek Canyon. I LOVE Chad's bike SO much! In fax, he was going to sell it to pay for my engagment ring, and I objected telling him if he needed longer to save up the money that was fine by me, because I couldn't bear to part with that bike. That bike reminds me so much of when we first started dating and how I felt like a teenager in love when he used to pick me up on it and we would rides as our "dates". I posted some picks of our little drive, that turned into a quasi photoshoot (thanks to me haha) because I thought it was just such a beautiful day!

To diet or not to diet?

So I am not like most people....I actually enjoy the act of eating...far more than a person probably should. Besides the fact that I enjoy cooking food, I also enjoy gobbling it up as soon as it is ready! At the first of our relationship Chad and I had a terrible fight about how I ate with my mouth open. Yes. Apparently I was like a horse eating hay. How I had lived my whole life and never been told by a previous beau or my parents that I ate like pig, was beyond Chad. haha. Worse, was how bruised my ego was at hearing this terrible news! No girl ever wants to be told she makes someone lose their appetite when she eats...especially the man she is in love with! Well, months later I have gotten much better and we can thankfully say I no longer chomp my food down and I actually chew and swallow between mouthfuls.

But, this now brings me to a topic I am very fascinated with, and that is pre-wedding dieting. Does every bride need to diet before her wedding? I am beginning to think this is true since every one of my friends that is married practically starved themselves before their big day and in return looked insanely great on their wedding day. BUT.....what happens if you HATE to diet and you just plain suck at it? Do you just eat whatever you want and risk not fitting into your dress, or do you suck it up and deprive yourself so you look good? Another thing that is really interesting to me is the phrase "You will be so nervous and stressed out you will lose weight and hardly eat". Well, to that I say what if when you are stressed you DO eat? In fact what if frozen yogurt pints from Haagan Daaz makes everything better? What then? I had an acquintance tell me the other day that all the talk of being too stressed and not wanting to eat and what not was all a big heaping pile of BS. She said "I had so many family and friends in town that all we did was go out to dinner and to drinks and therefore I gained weight right before my wedding". FINALLY an honest soul. Now this is a scenario that seems vaguely familiar to me............................. A few weeks ago (say a month and a half ago) Chad and my whole family traveled to San Francisco for my brother Tallis and his fiance Kaen's (pronounced Gen) wedding. I had the privilage of being a bridesmaid in the wedding and got to wear a darling dress from J CREW. Mind you I picked out the dress and the size and was well aware of what I was purchasing. When the dress came it fit like a glove and I was thrilled! Well....I am not sure what happened in the next 3-4 months, but something did, and it made putting the dress on the day before the wedding the worst 20 mins of my life. Yeah.....um the dress not only didn't fit (mostly around the chest area...which is normal for me if you know me) but it wasn't budging a centimeter! I had Kaen and my mother trying as hard as they could to get this dress zipped up. Bless their hearts they put every ounce of strength into it, and I was sucking in so hard I was about to faint! The only thing that stopped me from crying my eyes out and screaming at the mirror was the fact that this had to be a freaking joke! Any minute I was going to wake up because this had to be a horrible dream! This dress wasn't just a little bit tight, it was like it was rebelling agianst me and all the chocolate I had consumed from across the street at Ghiridellie Square. Oy.................... After like I said, about 20 mins, the zipper magically zipped up and I was SO relieved (and so was Kaen I think because she probably was freaking out inside about what her bridesmaid and the dress that couldn't be worn LOL). The fun didn't end there though folks....the next day at the actual event, it took not two, but THREE people to zip that sucker up. After being stretched out to the hills the day before, it actually zipped up a ton easier, but we still needed the extra help, my ego was still severely bruised (about ten girls were in that room getting ready and I was the only one with a dress that was clearly too small for her).

Which brings me to the question I posed at the beginning.....do we diet before our wedding or do we defy the gods and just see what happens? I obviously at first that I would go for the latter choice, but for the sake of winding up in the same position I was with that fateful bridesmaid dress, I think I will go on a diet. Mind you I am not much of a dieter, so when I say that word, I mean it in the loosest of contexts. To me a diet is not eating more than one slice of bread a day (which is probably worse than going without water for me) and eating frozen yogurt rather than ice cream. Does it mean giving up all that is bad for me? HECK NO who do you think I am? Plus, luckily fo rme I am having my dress made and so I can always just ask Penny to let it out a little :). Let's hear it for having something made to fit YOUR ever changing female body! :) haha

Going to San Jose!

Well happy Tuesday Smuesday peeps! :). This week is a short week for me...thanks goodness, because we are going to San Jose on Thursday night. What is in San Jose you say? Well friends of Chads's live there...Sheryl and Kevin. Sheryl just finished Vetrinary school in Seattle and now she is doing her residency there. A few people are like "well there isn't a whole lot to do there why are you going there?" and to them I would like to say that a vacation isn't where you are going, it's who you are going to see! Monterrey is close by and so is Carmel I think, so I am thinking of taking a little drive down to see the aquarium and Pebble Beach. If you have never been to Carmel you MUST go! It is like Orange County, but more "country"...RICH country. It is insanely chic and pricey. It is like this little diamond of a town, with shops and restaurants you would kill to shop and eat at. Can you tell I like this place? I have only been there once but ever since I have been DYING to go back! Regardless of if we get to go there or not, I am just excited to see Sheryl and Kevin. One of the unexpected "treats" of getting married is getting new friends! haha. I mean it! I am really lucky because my fiances friends are just delightful to be around and most of them have become my friends too now. I love being able to connect with the girlfriends and wives and share hilarious stories of Chad and listening to their funny stories of old Chad. Some of the funniest stories I have ever heard have come from Kevin. I love knowing Chad has a best friend that would do literally anything for him and has in his life. Kevin a good friend and Sheryl is such a sweetheart. They in fact actually took Chad's cat Davey (named after his late father) when Chad had to move to Dana Point, CA. Chad loves cats and that cat was his favorite ever. He used to sleep right next to Davey and everywhere Chad went Davey followed. Sheryl and Kevin STILL have Davey and so I will actually get to meet the infamous cat this weekend on our trip. I actually think Chad is looking forward to seeing his old pal again! haha. Last Christmas we got a Christmas card from Sheryl and Kevin with a picture of little Davey on the front and I swear I saw Chad get teary eyed :).

Engagement Photos...oh boy....

So last Sunday Chad and I ventured down to Springville to get our engagement pictures taken. We had my dad take them (he did Heather and Dave's photo's and he is so talented) and we chose Springville because Chad has some family friends with some amazing property there. It was the first time Chad's mom met Joy and Larry! Thank goodness Larry was on his best behavior and my mom was there to ease my dad's awkwardness (love you dad haha). Most girls don't have a father with so many darn opinions on pictures, but since my dad was the photographer and he is an artist, I basically had to do whatever he said. First was my hair. OY. How I had my hair done was fine but it was "in my face" and he couldn't see my eyes apparently. Then, it was my outfits. "Interesting" was one of the comments I got. GEEZ. Then it was "your not going to wear shoes but Chad should". WTF? So we wanted a "country" outdoorsy theme that was really relaxed and a little bit "Southern". Apparently in the "Southern Country" the women don't wear shoes and the men get to wear boots. Mind you I am in a frilly polka dot dress (think circa 1950 but way cuter) and he is in a button down shirt, jeans and boots. It's like we are back to the days of the little bare foot wifey and the big strong man in his boots! haha. I seriously had to BEG my dad to let me wear my red high heels for 2 shots! You could hear Joy in the background "Larry just let her wear the shoes come on!" and poor Joleen thinking we are a bunch of weirdo's. She was probably thinking in her head "Wow....these people talk to each like they should be on the Jerry Springer show....DADDY LET ME WEAR MY SHOES! (think redneck southern accent) NO DARLIN THE WOMEN DON'T WEAR SHOES IN THIS HERE FAMILY!

To add to the wondeful fesitivies we fell in a pond filled with mud and crap! Yeah. Larry's brilliant idea was so get on the rickety dock of this pond that had swans in it. It seemed like a really pretty photo op, but this dock was a piece for sure. So we get on it and I cuss out loud (oops) and decide right away this is a BAD idea especially since I am in a white lace dress of Heather's. So, we are standing on this thing, trying to smile and look in love, and the swans are not coming towards us despite our best effort with fish food (swans eat fish food? huh?). So Tim, the property owner decided it was a genuis idea to get on the dock and lure the swans over and then he will leave so he isn't in the picture. Yeah right as he puts his foot on I freak! Am I the only smart person here??? Then for some unknown reason he starts stomping on the dock trying to level it out! UM WHAT?? So instead it tips completely and we all fall in! Lovely! Chad being the gentleman he is held me up mostly so I got only a bit wet, but he fell in completely and was covered in mud...like caked in it. Awesome. My face said it all in the photos (you guys are bright...NOT..). Looking back it was pretty funny, but after it happened I was pissed. REALLY pissed...and I didn't hide it much (although I tried). HAHA

Regardless, we got some good pictures (and some really bad ones) but mostly good ones and the effort was not for nothing. When I get around to it, I will post some of the better ones, along with the ones where we fell in the lake. I'm sure people will get a kick out of them :)

My first post!

So this is my first blog and for someone who grew up loving to write and wanted to be a writer for years, I am stumped on what to say! Who knew? I guess I will start by saying that life right now couldn't be better. I realize that is really cheesy and lame, but it's true. Getting engaged has been such a happy time for Chad and I and we are really excited to spend the rest of our lives together. Chad and I met a year ago through some friends that we actually don't talk to anymore. Pretty random I know, but hey, we got something good out of it! I was pretty skeptical to date Chad because he was really good looking and 32 and I thought there had to be something wrong with him if he was single. BUT...I guess the same could go for me right? haha. Anyway, we met at dinner for our first date and I was pretty much smitten right from the start. We went on a few more dates in the span of about 2 or 3 weeks and then decided that we didn't really want to date anyone else. It moved pretty fast and I was nervous because every relationship that moves fast tends to fizzle out, but we just couldn't get enough of each other. I thought that was definitely different and realized pretty early on that Chad was unlike any guy I have ever dated for sure. I knew that I was falling in love and he was too, and I knew after about a month that I wanted to marry him. WHOA pretty fast right? Well luckily we waited about a year to actually get engaged (smart thing to do) and here we are a year later planning a wedding for April.

Things that we love to do is hang out with our families, especially little Elsie girl! I love Elsie to pieces and you can find tons of pictures and notes about her on my sisters blog, but for some reason she cries every time Chad holds her. This is really random because Chad is actually better with kids then I am! You should see it, it's hilarious it's like it goes in slow motion. We put her in his arms and he talks to her in this little whisper of his best "baby" voice but it sounds more like a man trying to sound a bit breathlessly femmy (LOL) and she is good for about 30 seconds then she looks up at him and her little lip starts to quiver and all of a sudden she is just bawling! We're all like what is going on? Chad always says "Guess she isn't my buddy today". But, I guess we still can't get enough of this darling and hilarious little chubber :). Hanging out with my family is so fun for us, because I am really close to them and so is Chad. My parents like Chad more than they like me I swear! We do lots of fun things together mostly on Sundays and it really is a blast.

Right now we are working on making our litte apartment a home! We got new couches, a new bedspread, and we are working on getting a washer and dryer. Decorating a house is really fun and actually a lot more different than what is was like decorating my apartments when I lived alone. Men actually have opinions about what they want (well Chad does) and it is pretty interesting to see what they pick out. For instance, Chad picked out our bedspread and it is a celdon green with peach embroidered flowers and it is actually pretty girly! Who knew? Should I be worried? Nah! It's always nice to have a man who has a good eye for something pretty. LOL