One month

I promise not to become one of those wedding-obsessed people, but I just have to relish, if only for a moment.

One month ago today I said YES! One month ago my life took THAT step to forever. Everything changed while staying the same. I'm so excited for the journey I am on and so fortunate to be blessed with this journey.

I reminded the fiancé today about what he was doing one month ago. He said it was the best day of his life to date. I can't wait to spend and discover the ever after together. Cheesiness done.

Wedding Funnies

I went home this past weekend in order to see my fam and to do a little ever so important wedding research. The research kept me very busy!

I just had to share two quick little stories that made me giggle while I was at home.

While visiting with two of my favorites, Ella and Eric, I decided I would go ahead and ask them if they would be a flower girl and ring bearer in the wedding. I asked Ella first, and she immediately said yes. Then I asked Eric, and he shook his head no. Ella informed me that he was nervous. So I told Eric that he didn't need to be nervous and we wouldn't make him do anything he didn't want to. He thought about it for a few minutes and then said "Okay, I'll do it. But I want to be a Panda." His mom and I were perplexed for a few seconds until Brook realized that he thought I had said "bear" instead of "bearer". So we're going to have a Ring Panda.

It also made me giggle with how involved and interested Ella and Eric are in the whole planning a wedding process. Ella wanted to know what I was going to wear, and what she was going to wear, and how I was going to do my hair. She even offered to let me borrow her pink flower clips for my hair! Eric wasn't so sure about having to dress fancy, but he does want a pair of dancing shoes! Never expected so much interest from a 6 and 4 year old!

The other thing that made me giggle was my Dad.

In talking with my parents about some of the various wedding festivities, I mentioned that I would like to do the Bridal Brunch at our house and have it be a very similar event to our annual Christmas Morning brunch, since it's by far the best meal of the year in the Durham household. The next morning I see my Dad walking into the house and he's holding two packages of bacon. This would probably not seem so bizarre if you weren't aware of the fact that my parents don't actually live at our house and there is hardly any edible food on the premesis. I asked my Dad about the bacon and he said that it was on sale and he had to get it for the brunch. The bridal brunch. In April. (nevermind that Christmas will come before then) He's going to freeze it.
It reminded me of how my Mom says that my Dad immediately went out and planted a vegetable garden upon learning that my Mom was pregnant with twins. Guess that goes along with what my co-worker Tony always says, "There's no substitution for thorough prepwork?"

The proposal

I actually sat down to write this post weeks ago, but never got around to finishing it.


Hopefully if you're reading this blog, you're aware by now that I'm engaged! Steven surprised me in Washington, DC on July 1 with a proposal. And, you've probably already read about how he did it by reading the President General of DAR's blog (http://blog.dar.org/2011/07/02/a-surprise-marriage-proposal-at-continental-congress/).... but I figured I should probably tell everyone (and put down in writing) my side of the story... so here goes...

I left for Washington, DC for DAR Continental Congress (our annual national meeting) on Friday, June 24 with plans to return back to Texas on Sunday, July 3. Because of the current position I hold on the National level (National Vice Chairman of the Junior Shoppe), I have to be in DC for that long. Set-up for the Shoppe began on Saturday morning and continued through Sunday and then the Shoppe was open for business from Monday-Saturday from 8 am-4 pm. In the Shoppe we sell various DAR products (think embroidered bath robes, patriotic jewelry, notepads, etc.) to raise money for the Helen Pouch Memorial Fund which supports the DAR Schools (there are 6 schools across the country which DAR supports). This summer we did a little over 54,000 in sells in 6 days.

As you can see, I was a busy girl. Managing the Shoppe required me to be at the hall no later than 7:45 am and to leave sometimes not until 6 pm. Talk about long days on vacation! My evenings were full, too. I either attended meetings or made plans with friends who live in the DC area, or DAR friends whom I don't get to see very often. I tell you all of this so you can understand just how surprised I was to see Steven when I walked into the President General's Reception Room.

Friday was no exception to the busy days at DAR. I spent the morning working at the Shoppe and then we had the official Congress Page picture with the President General. Following the Congress Page picture, I went to lunch with the Texas girls at Cosi up the street. We always plan this lunch on Friday because there are quite a few of us, and we've all got various duties and positions, so this is a time we can all meet and socialize. After our lunch, I returned to the Shoppe to work for a bit before the Junior Membership committee report. When a National Chairman gives her report, the Vice Chairmen of the committee are invited to be seated in the President General's box in the auditorium, so they can be recognized at the end of the report. They run that box like clockwork! You are escorted in at the beginning for your Chairman's report, you listen for the two minutes, stand at the end, and then are escorted out of the box.

As I exited the Hall after leaving the box, my friend Lindsey grabbed my arm and said that Zia needed to see me in the President General's Reception Room. Zia is a page in the Reception Room, so that's where you would normally find her. She had been "sick" all day, so I immediately thought something horrible had happened. Little did I know that she had just been pretending to be "sick" all day just to have a reason to get me into the room!

I come into the Reception Room and I see Zia, standing in a line with a number of other Texas DAR ladies. She looks perfectly fine, and the professional photographer Marshall is there, so I think that we must be taking some kind of picture that I wasn't aware of. After many years of picture taking, I take my cue and go to the end of the line to be in the picture.

At this point, my DAR mother Pamela, looks at me and asks if I'm okay. I tell her yes, I'm great; I've just been in the PG's box for Morgan's report and now I'm here (I was a little perplexed because I was supposed to be meeting her at Hamilton to look at pins at 2, which was right then). At that point, the waters parted and the ladies revealed a handsome fella in a suit sitting in a chair. After a second, I realized that it was my handsome fella!

I think it took a few seconds for me to process that Steven was sitting there because he was supposed to be in Houston visiting his parents for his Dad's birthday. I had been too busy that day to even think about calling him, so I had no idea he had actually spent the morning on a plane to surprise me in DC!

He says I immediately started crying when I saw him, and I believe him, though I can't really remember. Figuring he shouldn't waste any time before he loses his nerve, he grabs my hand and drops to one knee and proposed, though neither of us can really remember what was said. I know that he said "Jamie Perry Durham, this has been the best year of my life..." but that's all I've got.

It was a beautiful proposal, and quite a surprise(which was what Steven wanted most for our marriage proposal)! Afterwards, I found out just how many people had been in on the secret and how long they had kept it from me. Let's just say I won't be playing poker with any of these DAR ladies anytime soon.

I walked out of the Reception Room with a look of shock on my face and word began to spread that I had been proposed to at DAR. Our afternoon was filled with lots of phone calls to family and friends, lots of introductions to various DAR ladies, and then a fun evening of celebrating with some dear friends. Couldn't have been more perfect if I'd planned it myself!

And there you have it, our proposal : )

Assault at a Mall.

I was assaulted today while shopping on my lunch break at a local mall in Austin.

I had just walked out of a store and was looking at a window in the next store when BAM! The Italian hair straightening woman came after me. She asked a few questions and before I knew it, she had taken a piece of my curly hair and straightened it.

Now I would have looked silly walking around with one piece of hair straightened and the rest curly, so when she offered to do all of my hair, I had to agree. All of this was to pitch me this super amazing straightener for the low, low price of $200. Of course, I passed. And then I fled the mall as quickly as possible.

This is what I get for trying to avoid eye contact with the sea salt people. I walked right into the Italian ladies hands. I'd much rather have super soft hands than super straight hair right now.

You're welcome?

I got a text on Thursday evening from two of Jay's friends, Jesse and Kevin (okay, so they're also my friends, too). They planned on coming to Austin for the weekend with their girlfriends Jessica and Jenn to go skydiving for their 28th birthdays. I guess they figured 28 was enough birthdays? Anyways, they wanted to stay at Hotel de Jamie, so of course I said yes.

They managed to wake me up at 3 am on both Friday and Saturday nights. The first night, they were having problems with my key. That's because they were at the wrong apartment. My complex splits the street, so there's a 922 on both sides of the street. Luckily, they didn't wake anyone up in the wrong apartment. The second night, they were having problems getting my gate to function. Fortunately, they were able to follow another car in. For my troubles, they left me a nice little gift card to Target and this completely awesome and random thank you note...

And... done!

This picture pretty much describes my week:

Session ended on Monday! And we went back into Special Session on Tuesday! Talk about annoying. Luckily for me, the hours aren't long in this special session as my boss and my committee have nothing to do with what's on the Governor's call. Woohoo!

I've enjoyed being able to return to "normal" life. I went grocery shopping for the first time in MONTHS on Tuesday. I've gotten to work out every day. I've done some cleaning around my apartment (though there's still TONS to do more). I've gotten to hang out with friends. It's the small stuff you appreciate after months of craziness.

Headed to Ltown this weekend for a big family reunion (I mean even bigger than our regular get togethers). Looking forward to hugging and kissing on all of the sweet kids in my life that I haven't seen in AGES. There are 6th and 4th and 2nd birthdays to celebrate! I'm making the trip sans one boyfriend because he must stay behind to attend a funeral. I'm sad he won't be making the trip, especially considering the circumstances, but it will be just a little nice to soak up all of my family time by myself. I just wonder how many times my niece will ask where he is...

The light at the end of the tunnel...

It's almost here. I can see that little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel as we race towards the end of Session. And, with every passing day it seems more and more possible that we may not have to spend the summer in Special Session, too! It's so exciting to know that my life is almost mine again!

My work is winding down. We held our last hearing this past Monday and last meeting on Wednesday and I turned in my final Committee Reports yesterday. We celebrated the end of our meetings with a lovely committee dinner on Wednesday night. I'm going to kind of miss seeing all of our members on a weekly basis, but not enough to wish us back into Session.

It's almost 10 am on a Saturday morning and I'm at work. I was here late last night, too. It's exhausting, but I find the floor debate fascinating (because we all know I'm a giant nerd), so I don't mind it. Just 9 more days, friends. 9. more. days!