Tis the Season

I'm not really sure where December went. I still haven't really even started my Christmas shopping, there's nothing like waiting until the last minute!

We did put our tree up right after Thanksgiving. I was really proud of it until we were at my future in-laws this past weekend and saw their magnificent tree. It looked professionally decorated. There was a theme and everything!

I guess I should make a New Year's resolution to blog more.

With Thanksgiving

Well, it's been awhile.... and of course, I'm writing a post about Thanksgiving in December, so I'm obviously behind. November wasn't the easiest of months, so I'm thankful that it's over! There's so much to be thankful for this year!

I'll start off on a bit of a sad note, and the biggest reason why November wasn't easy. It's been a month since one of my best friends and mentors, Travis, died very suddenly of an aortic dissection. He was 32. I first met Travis when I started working at the Capitol. I'm not really sure when our first introduction was, he was just a guy I always knew. During the 2007 Legislative Session we worked some together as my boss was on the committee he was the Committee Clerk for and I was the staff member assigned to follow that committee. Then in the 2009 Session we worked together on the Corrections Committee. We were quite a team! Travis was a pretty passionate guy and we were always baffled as to how we made it through six months of working in such a small space together for such long hours without ever once getting into an argument or disagreement. He taught me so much during that time and I will never be able to thank him enough. Today, and every day, I am thankful for the friend and mentor he was to me. He was my very best friend in the Capitol and I miss him dearly. It's still hard to believe that I won't ever hear him yelling after me in the hallway or enjoy a lunch at Cisco's with him or see his smiling face. I'm thankful for his friendship, one that I will forever cherish. I am also thankful for the friends who were there and have helped me cope with this sudden loss.

I'm thankful for my wonderful fiance. I'm so lucky to have him in my life! It is such a wonderful feeling to know that you have a partner in life: someone to celebrate the triumphs with and to bear the hardships with as well.

I'm thankful for my wonderful family, both current and soon-to-be. We are so blessed to have loving and supportive parents and siblings and some of the cutest nieces and nephew around! Thanksgiving was so much fun because we got to spend time with each of the 8 kiddos that are in our wedding party. I played some quality "Just Dance" on the wii with Brooke, walked sweet Paige around the living room, we took Ella and Eric to see the Muppet Movie, and enjoyed fun time at the lake with Madelyn, Jace, Will (who can say my name now!) and Braxton.

On the wedding planning front: Save the dates have been mailed out! Bridesmaids dresses and flower girl dresses have been picked! We had a successful meet the family fish fry at the lake over Thanksgiving (minus the rain), so Steven's parents and sister's family could meet all of my aunts and uncles and their families. Came home from Thanksgiving to the invitation to our engagement party later this month in Lufkin, so exciting! We're less than 5 months out, people!

Random Observation

I've noticed something recently, and I just wanted to share. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a glass crashing situation for all of you How I Met Your Mother fans.

I'm guessing you've noticed that whenever you see someone and ask "How are you doing", they usually respond with "well" or "good"? Most common answers ever. So no, that's not my observation. My observation is your response. If the person answers "well", you respond with the ever so not grammatically correct "good" when they ask how you are. And if the person answers "good", you respond with "well" when they ask how you are.

You might be asking how in the world I would care to make this observation. It's simple, in my line of work you see lots of people in passing in the halls on a daily basis. People are friendly, so they ask the simple question of "How are you?" Also, whenever my boss' legal assistant calls, we have the exact same exchange every single time. And it never fails, one of us says "good", the other says "well", no matter which the other person says first.

So, there's my random observation. I know it's lame, but thought you might enjoy a non wedding-related post. Though speaking of weddings, I'm going to have to share about my experience at a wedding this past weekend the next time I get around to posting. Oh, the suspense.

THE dress...

Well, I finally did it. After contemplating for two weeks, and trying on many, many dresses... I bit the bullet and ordered my wedding dress! While I'm not going to share the details of the dress here (and I should probably start refraining from showing anyone and everyone who even mentions the words "wedding" and "dress" around me), I will share with you some of my favorites that were under consideration while shopping.

What we found amusing while dress shopping was that I didn't have a particular style of dress that I went for. I definitely needed an a-line skirt (love those hips of mine), we figured out that a sash was the perfect accessory to accentuate my waste, and we discussed sleeve options for every dress that didn't already have them (Ganny always said I shouldn't get married in a church in a sleeveless dress)... but other than that, the similarities stopped there. The top 3 contenders were absolutely nothing alike other than they were white dresses.


Prior to shopping, this Monique Llhullier Bliss dress was my absolute favorite. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get a chance to try it on. The one bridal shoppe in Austin that carries the line didn't have this sample (or really any samples for this line because they're in the midst of a huge rennovation), but after looking at the lace detail for another MLB dress and going by what I learned from trying on other dresses, the lace and the cap sleeves might have been a little too much for me on top.

I was really surprised that I loved this Jim Hjelm beauty as much as I did. Kathryn wanted me to try it on. Loved how preppy chic it is, but it's a bit more of a fashion statement than I want to make on my wedding day. I may not love this dress in 50 years as much as I do now.

Had never fancied myself as an all-over lace dress kind of a gal, but my shopping posse all said this was the kind of dress they had envisioned me in. It even looked nice when we added little cap sleeves to it. This Wtoo dress was #2 for me, but I wasn't as wowed with the style when I tried it on a second time.

Subtract the huge black bow (because I certainly didn't try it on with this bow), and you get a dress that is very similar to the Monique Llhullier dress that I adored prior to shopping. I was definitely intrigued by this Tara Keely dress, but to be honest, the sales girl at this shoppe just wasn't rockin' it. Kathryn stepped up when it came to accessorizing and really trying to pull together the whole bridal look. The lace was also kind of see-through, it definitely would have had to have an additional layer of lining up top.

I hadn't even considered the possibility of a one-shoulder dress, though I've been obsessed with one-shoulder dresses for the bridesmaids. We tried this Jasmine dress with another sash and were quite smitten with it. The price tag was also pretty dang exciting (under $1000). Lindsey sent a picture of me in this dress to her mom so Madelyn could see and she said "Wow!". May have considered this dress more if it hadn't been the first stop of the day and if the service at the salon had been better.

This Vineyard gown was listed as my #2 choice from the first shoppe. Too be honest, I really don't remember what it looked like on me. I think we liked the sweet-heart neckline and the big bow on the front.

This Venus dress was ranked as the #3 choice overall. It was at the last store we went to, and everyone else loved it way more than I did. It was by far the best bargain of the day, and I'm not sure if that's what made it everyone's favorite or if they were just drunk on toile at that point. I liked the dress, but the style of rouching is very popular and I wanted more of a less popular look for my wedding dress.

So, there you have it... all of the almost "THE" dresses. I'm really excited about the dress that I chose. It was one that I had liked while doing research (pretty sure I've looked at every wedding dress there is on the internet). Now you'll just have to wait until April 28 to see THE dress : )

7 months!

That's right, it's just 7 months until the BIG day!

I feel really good about where we are in the planning process, and will feel even better in the next few weeks as more details are hammered down. For those of you interested, here's a run down of the dones and the to dos:

DONE:

• Church booked.
• Minister booked. (My high school youth minister, Martin will be performing the ceremony, so this was separate from the church booking)
• Organist and soloists booked.
• Reception booked.
• Caterer booked.
• Florist booked.

ALMOST DONE:

• Dress. Went shopping this past weekend with my MOHs Kathryn and Andrea and sister-in-law Lindsey. Narrowed the search down to three finalists. Plan to try on at least once more before making the final decision.
• Guest List. Collecting addresses and trying to finalize a list (which is ever so difficult when it's so LONG).
• Invitations. Visiting with my cousins who own a printing company about those this weekend.
• Engagement pictures. Hoping to get a few snapshots taken while in Lufkin this weekend.

TO DO:

• Bridal Party attire
• Photographer
• DJ
• Cake
• Rental Items. Once the other items are nailed down, we will go through the list of must haves and would like to haves based on what we've got to spend.
• All of the little things...

I'm sure these next 7 months are going to FLY BY!

It's a small, small world.

It's either a really small world or I know too many people. Or maybe a combination of the two.

Situation #1: Steven and I went to San Francisco last weekend for my dear friend Lauren's wedding. Such. a. fun. trip! We were touristy and saw the sites of San Fran, hung out with our engagement twinkies (Jerry and Adair got engaged the same day as us), enjoyed a private wine tour of the Russian River Valley and had tons of fun at the wedding. So anyways, our flight was at like 8 am on that Friday morning so we arrived at the airport a little before 6:30. Want to know how many people I knew in the airport security checkpoint line? Three! And two were on our flight! Quite the combo of people, too: one former Capitol staffer, one lobbyist and then a lady from my DAR chapter.

Situation #2: We went to the A&M game this last weekend. Prior to the game I attended a DAR luncheon for Constitution Day. Our speaker was my friend Lynn and she mentioned her daughter Lindsey and husband Brett were attending the game that day, too (they met while at school at A&M). We arrive at the stadium and get to our assigned parking lot and are going to cross the street and guess who we see waiting to cross the street at the same crosswalk? That's right, Lindsey and Brett! After we made a short trip to Northgate for some drinks and tshirts we ran into another DAR friend of mine when walking up to the stadium and not even a minute later saw a lady from Lufkin who I used to babysit for. There was only 80,000 people there. Couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.

Still settling into the house. Unpacking is a nightmare when it involves the merging of things. Looking forward to not doing this again for a very long time!

A farewell...

I said goodbye today to my home for the last two years. It was a little sad to walk out of my apartment for one final time. I'm a bit overwhelmed with making the big move into big girl life with the fiance. It's going to be quite an adjustment to be living with a BOY. Not to mention quite the adjustment to be a pseudo-homeowner for the first time in my life. I say psuedo since Steven first bought the house almost two years ago, it's going to take some time to get used to it being "ours".

Life has been hectic. Spent the last few weeks slowly moving everything one trip at a time. Was in Vegas last weekend for Labor Day. Didn't win a thing on my own, but did have some luck on a few football games for the fiance. Heading to San Francisco tomorrow for dear Lulu's wedding this weekend in Santa Rosa. Looking forward to seeing some of my favorite people and enjoying the pleasant temperatures of California. It's been almost 10 years since I was last there! Upon my return I shall get back to our regularly scheduled wedding planning (haven't done a thing for weeks!). I guess if life was to slow down I'd be bored!

One last look at the apartment. Tilt your head because blogger is being stupid.