Wedding Checks

Just thought I would share some stuff I got done over the last few days for the wedding.

1. I bought our "pretty cutting cake" from Ozenkoski's Bakery. It's an 8-inch marble cake w/ ivory buttercream icing and pearls on it.

2. I bought my shoes from a consignment shop for $10. Pretty sweet deal, right?

3. I found some salt and pepper shakers for our cake topper. Those who have seen Fireproof will "get" this... if you haven't seen it, you should.

4. Our guestbook arrived in the mail today. Aside from being a little smaller than I had pictured and the color being a little off on the cover, I LOVE IT!! I was so excited about getting it that I let it show when I opened the door for the FedEx guy; he liked that reaction, LOL. Here are some pictures:






We're two weeks out as of tomorrow and it seems like it's such a long time away... I only have a few things left: a cake stand and cake cutter, toasting flutes, send a playlist to the DJ...

Is it really almost the end of February?

The last few weeks have been nothing but blurs of work, church, and more work. In the last 2 weeks I've had 2 days to catch up on stuff I needed to do at home; as a result, my house was a mess. Luckily, I have an amazing fiance who cleaned today after church. now my kitchen is sparkly and my carpets are vacuumed. Now all I need to do is get my butt moving to take care of some laundry that needs to be put away and some reference letters I need to write.

J's mom bought us a headboard from K-Mart. I looked for a pic I could put int he post, but I couldn't find one, so I gues you'll just have to settle for a link to the info page at kmart.com. I love it 'cause it has storage, so I can put, like, picture frames or little knick knacks in there. I will take a picture once our bedroom is put together sso you can see!

I saw the Wizard of Oz at Lindenwood's new performing arts center and I loved it. I'm hoping to see it again on Saturday with my mom and my aunt (there are 2 different casts, so I would be seeing a different group of core actors). LU's new theatre is gorgeous, though, and it has a fly-pulley system, so the flying monkeys (one played by one of my bridesmaids) got to actually FLY. Way fun!

Yesterday evening was church's annual chili supper. We have a silent auction at the same time (I auctioned off a night of baby sitting) and all of the money goes to our Missions fund which helps with things like our high schoolers' trip to Ecuador and the trips to Lousiana, etc. We made $2300 which is pretty SWEET. Way to go! The chili was pretty good, too. I made some for the first time and it turned out way yum! (And it smelled good, too; I brought it into work 'cause I worked till 4 and the supper was at 5 and everyone kept saying, "You brought me chili?! Aw, thanks!")

Last night, I had a GNO with some girls from my wedding board. I haven't been to many because they're always somewhere "out" where I have to spend money (which we all know I don't have much of) and they're on Saturday nights which means I can't stay too late because of church the next morning. Last night was a pajama party theme and we just hung out and brought food... One girl brought cupcakes made w/ diet soda instead of the milk/eggs/oil the box calls for and they were soooo good! Another girl wore footsie pajamas -- yes, a woman in her 20s has footsie p.j.s (technically, they were her brother's but she owns some of her own). Oh my goodness these girls are so much fun!!! Anyway, I didn't end up leaving till 12:30. Thanks to Jenn for straightening my hair for me last night! It cut out a whole step in my morning routine!!

Tonight we'll be spending some time with my dad, grandma, and my dad's girlfriend watching the Oscars. I'm bringing brownies I have left over from last night and some little smokies baked w/ brown sugar. Yum! (I think that's the third time I said that!) Have a great night!!!

Soon, i Promise...

I have been insanely crammed this week between work and church and wedding.... I was finally able to take a breather and catch up on all the TV I DVR-ed last weeek.

I'll give you a real entry soon, I promise...

Honeymoon is BOOKED!

Can I just say that I'm insanely excited for March to get here? I just booked our honeymoon. We'll be staying in a bed and breakfast in Branson, MO, for 3 days. Neither of us have been to Branson and we found a really good deal so I figured, why not? It's at a place on Table Rock Lake called the Anchor Inn on the Lake. We're taking their most expensive room (what the hell, it's our honeymoon!) called the Mediterranean Lighthouse Room. It's gorgeous and the owners are soooo sweet. EXCITING!!

Get ready to be jealous:

Our room. Beautiful, right?!


The place at Christmas time.


The view of Table Rock Lake from the porch


I also bought the flower girl dress for my niece yesterday. That was a blast. Every dress to her was "beautiful" and she kept pointing out dresses that I should wear at the wedding. So cute!

One Month. Four Weeks. Twenty-Eight Days.

It's sooooo close! We're hitting the home stretch now; I'm finalizing menus and picking a rehearsal dinner caterer and getting my dress hemmed. I'm counting RSVPs and buying alst minute stuff. In four weeks I will be Mrs. Hall and I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!! (Yes, I did just use 8 exclamation points.) I plan on relishing every minute of my last month as a single woman, but I am excited about the new path I'm about to start on.

What else is there to report? (I need to make sure every entry isn't about my impending nuptials...) I went to that job fair a few weeks ago and interviewed with 5 districts. I had a very successful interview with the FH district; they have year round schooling, which might be weird at first, but a good district and I'm kind of not in a position to pick and choose my district. I've also inquired at a few local private/independent schools and sent my resume to a few. I'm a little worried, thought, because the economic situation has finally caught up with schools and a lot of districts aren't hiring as many people as they usually do/had hoped to. Bummer, right?

I guess I'll close for now. I have church in the morning and I want to post this before my title needs to change. XOXO! Happy Valentine's Day!

Four and a Half Weeks!!

SO the wedding is in four weeks and I'm crazy excited. I can't eblieve it's soooo close! It's like the way I've felt every summer before camp all combined. It's going to be a-mazing. There are only some nit-picky things left (figuring out my hair, ordering a few more things, etc.). It'll be here before Iknow it.

I was over at my maid of honor's house tonight and we dicussed my bachelorette party and I'm excited. It'll be like a big slumber party kind of thing 'cause, honestly, I'm not into the whole, let's go get smashed thing. And it made my week 'cause I got to see Makenzie who is soooo cute. She's so much smarter than your average 31 month old. And sooooo funny!!

OK, before I close this post (it's late and I'm working in the morning), I need to comment on American Idol. They announced the top 36 tonight and some of them I agree with and some of them I'm "meh" about, and some I'm like, "WHAT THE HELL?!" The people I absolutely agree with are Danny Gokey, Jasmine Murray, Alexis Grace, Lil Rounds, and Anoop Desai. The ones I HATE are Nathaniel "I feel singing through my pores" Marshall and Tatiana "I'm too freaking annoying for anyone to like me even though my voice is amazing" del Toro. Everyone else I'm kind of like, whatever. What do you think?

And Now I'm 23...

My birthday was yesterday, in case nobody knew that. It was a pretty good day, despite it being on Super Bowl Sunday. (By the way, this is the second time my birthday has been the day of the Big Game... the NFL needs to get off my date!) Church in the morning, then Jerometook me to Olive Garden for lunch. We spent some time at home and then I went to my dad's girlfriend's house to watch the Super Bowl. I was planning on only watching the commercials (many of which were AMAZING), but the game obviously got my attention. I was also enjoying asking my dad what all the penalties meant 'cause he would pretend to get real mad. hee hee. He was rooting for the Cardnials and while he was disappointed in the results, he was not disappointed that the game was such a good game.

As for the commercials, here are four of my favorites:


For Monster.Com


For Bridgestone.Com


Also for Bridgestone.Com


For Doritos.

Which ones did you like? Let me know in my comments!

I have a job fair this week. I'll be interviewing with 7 local districts. I'm really excited. I've also contacted a bunch of local private/Christian schools to see how their application process works (if they just want my resume, etc. Many of them have said that they aren't sure they're hiring next year but that they would keep my resume on file in case anything opens up. I want a teaching job so badly, even though I'm nervous as heck to get my own class. (Not because I think I'll do badly, just because I've never had my OWN classroom, you know?)

I might be going to Ecuador with our high school youth this summer and I am soooooooo excited! It all depends on how generous people are at our wedding because that will depend on how much debt we pay off, which will influence how much money we can save each week. J is sweet, though. I was telling our youth coordinator that if both of us can't go, neither of us will go 'cause I would feel bad. J basically said that I'm going, even if he has to pack my bags for me, shove me out the door, and change the locks so I don't come back in. Ain't he sweet?