10 Weeks and 4 Days...are you kidding me?

No, folks, I am not. That is exactly how long until I get married. Holy crap. Am I scared? A little. Am I nervous? Oh yeah. Am I excited? Yes. Am I ready? Yes, but as far as planning goes...nope.

We have pretty much everything done, but there is still quite a bit to do. I know it will all get done, but I still have my moments of terror and hysteria, although usually it is all internal and never gets out. I'm sure at some point it's going to boil over!

We are headed to Ft. Stockton this weekend for a couple's party/shower. I think and hope that it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm just really tired from everything and would love a weekend to sleep in. But that's not going to happen for a few more weeks...like 4 or 5. This weekend we are in Ft. Stockton; the weekend of the 16th, I am in S'burg for my bridal portraits; the weekend of the 23rd is a joint 90th bday celebration for the Kalina's; and the weekend of the 30th is my bachelorette party!! Woohoo! So until the weekend of I think the 6th, I will not be getting much sleep, which if you know me, is not a good thing...I treasure any and all sleep I can get!

Not too much has been going on lately. We've just been working and getting settled into the house. Everything with it is going pretty well. If only we could figure out what the heck is going on with the AC. We know it works. It was serviced right before we moved in. However, the difference between the living room and the master bedroom is 4 degrees. I have put my atomic clock in the bedroom where it says the temp at night is 76. I left the outdoor sensor in the living room and on the clock it usually says it is 72. Thermostat is set to 73. So somewhere, something is going on and we just can't figure it out. All I know is that I can't continue to sleep with it that hot. Hopefully we can get it figured out soon, because it's getting kinda ridiculous!

After move in pictures

Josh in our living room after we had rearranged the furniture 5 times!

The kitchen


Our breakfast room

This area was an atrium at one time. It deserves a blog entry all on it's own describing what was done to it! Anyways, this was the "storage area" until everything could be moved to it's proper place.

The other side of the atrium

"The Blue Room"/Guest room after I had already tackled and organized it's contents.

"The Blue Room" again

The closet in "The Blue Room"

Josh's "Man Cave"

"My Room"/Wedding Central

I think they heard the cicadas and were trying to figure out what the noise was

Bayla's newest hiding place! We had just hooked up the DVD player with surround sound because we didn't have cable yet, and I noticed Bayla was missing. He doesn't like loud noises, especially the surround sound. I went looking for him and found him just laying there hanging out!

I guess I forgot to take pics of the master bedroom. It'll have to wait til next time.

Stress!

The other day I had written about our moving adventure and when I clicked to post it, something happened and nothing was there. AARRGHH!!! One day I will get to it, I hope. Maybe I'll just post the pics and you can create your own theories of how it went! Ha!

We got moved in. That's the main thing. And believe it or not, mostly unpacked. The living room, master bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, and "my room" are all unpacked and pretty organized. The guest bedroom and Josh's "man cave" are not really set up. The guest bedroom is ok, but needs some more work. The "man cave" is still a sea of boxes, golf clubs, and deer antlers. But that's his room, therefore, I am not stressing about it. I was stressing about "my room" because for the next two months, it is going to be "wedding central," and I needed my space to be organized. I think I accomplished it fairly well. After we get everything situated, I'll have to take more pics to show the finished product.

We went to the 'burg this past weekend to accomplish more wedding tasks, and I think we are on a roll. Saturday morning, bright and early, mom and I met Josh and his parents in La Grange to take care of picking out tuxes. It was an incredibly simple and painless 30 minutes. Thankfully I took Rach's bridesmaid dress with me and I think we matched the vests/ties perfectly for the groomsmen. After that, mom, SuSu (Josh's mom), and I hopped on 71 to head to Houston. The guys went back to Seguin to visit with Wayne's (Josh's dad) cousin Dale.

We went to Arne's to get party stuff for the reception. Has anybody been to this place? OMG! It's awesome and amazing and there aren't enough adjectives to describe this place! They have anything and everything you could ever want or need for a party or wedding, and it's all really cheap! We got plate, napkins, and forks for the cakes. We also got a hairclip for me. I can't remember if I had wrote about it, but mom and I had spent about two hours on Harwin street looking for a hairclip, with absolutely no luck. We go to Arne's and, boom, there it is. After party supplies, we stopped at Macy's for I don't what, but mom and I got a Starbucks. (As a sidenote: being at the mall and starbucks, you sure wouldn't know that we are in a recession right now!) Our final stop was Palais Royal. I ended up with a dress for the Bachelorette party that I paid $12 for! Oh yeah! It was on sale big time!

Then it was back to the 'burg for the caterer tasting at Mik's. Mmm...you know if John is cooking it's going to be good! (Another sidenote: mom taught John in high school, and he never fails to mention that she always made him write lines!) In addition to being a wonderful cook, he is also highly entertaining! Anyways, on to the food...We tried roast beef, roasted chicken breast, roasted pork loin, chicken fried steak, and chicken Parmesan over pasta. The sides were green beans, onion potatoes, twice baked potatoes, grilled vegetables, and a delicious salad that he makes! Wow! We were blown away with how good it all was! We made some really great decisions and I think everyone is going to be very pleased. I'm not going to say what we chose, so that if you are at the wedding, you will be surprised! We're going to use him for the rehearsal dinner and the reception. And we told him that he has to be there the day of the wedding because he's going to be the entertainment.

Sunday was filled with breakfast and running more errands. We went by my Grandma Elsie's house to collect jars for the decorations. She has so many jars, we barely made a dent with the 30 or 40 we got. We also went by the Kalina's and got to visit with them before we had to pack up and head out. Josh and I were both exhausted when we got back. But I am so excited that the wedding stuff is coming together. Only 2 1/2 more months! Yes! I can't wait for it to be over!

Stay tuned for more fun and adventures in house ownership and wedding planning!

It's done!

Moving day went well! It was incredibly long, hot, and stressful. I took some pics of all our stuff and will post more tomorrow!

The house is ours!

The house is ours now. Josh and I went over there today to clean. Let's just say they only vacuumed and even that was half ass! My parents and Ryan showed up around lunch to help. Mom cleaned the fridge, thank goodness, because it was disgusting! Josh and I cleaned windows, window sills, baseboards, above doors, ceiling fans, and vacuumed. I cleaned the bathrooms too, which was about as disgusting as the fridge! Ugh! I think we went through two containers of Clorox wipes! Josh swept and washed off the deck. Dad changed the locks for us and made a list of what he has to bring next weekend. Ryan kinda did whatever we needed him to do. Before we left for the day, Josh and I had a little fun with the red wasps that have taken up residence in our eaves. We got some heavy duty spray, and prepared ourselves to run like hell if they started to attack. We got lucky that they all were a little drugged up when they flew out, so there wasn't too much excitement. I have to go over there this week to finish the kitchen, breakfast room, and utility room. Saturday is the BIG day...moving day! We've got a U-haul rented and I'm almost all packed up. Not too much left to do.

We went to Home Depot Saturday evening when we got in from Kerrville to pick up some things we needed. Oh my gosh, what a trip! It was one thing after another. First, was the water hose. We decided we should probably get one. Then we thought we should get a spray nozzle. You'll notice in the pics below that there are large rectangles with different colors of paint. Apparently, the previous owners wife did the painting, and she didn't move furniture, she just painted around it!! Yeah, who does that? Anyways, they did leave some paint for us. So, while we were at Home Depot, we decided to get a paint brush. But then we decided to get a paint roller in addition to the brush. And they we felt like we might need paint thinner. It just kept snowballing! But we had fun, and are really excited about this adventure we are about to start.

The front

The front
Entry


Looking into living roomThe "blue room"

Guest Bath
Guest room
Guest room

Looking into breakfast room and kitchen

Master bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom/Bathroom

Kitchen

Backyard

Backyard

Outdoor grill and sink!!

I have a house!!!

Yes, that's right, Josh and I are houseowners!! AAHHHH!! I can't believe it!

I haven't mentioned anything, because I just kept waiting for the bottom to fall out like the last one. I didn't want to jinx anything! Luckily, this all went pretty smoothly. We closed this morning at 11:00. It is still all too surreal!

So, the plan now is to clean this weekend and then we will officially be moving in on the 19th. Stay tuned and I will hopefully post some pics this weekend.

We also have the Kalina Family Reunion this weekend in Kerrville, so I'll probably post some pics from that as well!

Going once, going twice...

and the house goes to.....

US!!!!!!

Yes, we are in the process of finalizing the contract to buy a house! Am I scared out my mind? You bet! Am I excited? You bet! Am I nervous? Hell yeah! I can't believe it. Christina, one of our secretaries told me the other day that we were getting two big things out of the way in the same year...wedding and a house. And she said all we'd need is a baby on the way and we'd have it covered. And I told her that that was not funny at all!! No, there is not a baby on the way!

We put the offer in this morning and our realtor called this afternoon and they countered, but we can deal with what they want. I hate to be premature, but I'm pretty certain this is going to work out.

They want to close at the end of June, so by July 1st, we'll be in our "brand new to us" house!!!!

Time needs to slow down

so I can catch up. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way though. There is so much going on right now!

There is a promising lead on the house front. We think we have found something that is going to suit us very well. We are going to check it out again today as well as some others, just to see what else is out there. But if we like it, we very well may be putting an offer in tomorrow morning...oh the scariness of opening another chapter in life. It is definitely exciting though and I'm anxious to get things moving, and getting myself moved! I can't wait until my dogs have a backyard to run around, and I can just open the door to let them out and not have to worry about it. I am hoping they will become a lot more independent too.

I went for my first dress fitting yesterday...all I can say is wow! I think my dress is going to be even more beautiful now that it will be hemmed. And the bustle they are doing is absolutely gorgeous! It's a little tight around my newly acquired "secretary's hips," but I am working on getting those toned up. If you work at a desk job, you know what I am talking about. When you sit down ALL day long, your hips have a tendency to widen a little bit. And I have been a complete slacker about working out...that is, until now...they will be gone in a few months!!

My mom came to SA this weekend and we had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. We did a little shopping, lots of talking, and laying out by my pool. I forgot how good being in the sun feels. My mom is so funny. It's amazing how she talks to everyone, everywhere, and somehow makes friends with them all. That is something I have picked up from her, but don't do it quite as well as she does. I can't wait until she is retired and come up here whenever and leave whenever and not be on a schedule. For those that don't know, my mom is retiring from teaching in a few weeks at the end of this school year. So far she has gotten job offers from Macy's, JCPenney's, Bath and Body Works, and Jared's, but she's not sure yet what she's going to do, but she is excited to be opening her own new chapter.

And I'll add a little story about Josh and me, and I know someone who will get a kick out of this. We don't get to see each other that much since we don't live together. Honestly, I am ok with this situation because I am very independent, and enjoy my alone time. So, pretty much the only time we see each other is on the weekends. Well, since my mom was in town this weekend, we didn't see each other at all...until yesterday afternoon. I called him after she left to tell him and see what he was doing. He says that he is coming over to see me...and I was disappointed because I was hoping to do some laundry and a little picking up before my Sunday shows. He kept saying that we never get to see each other and I told him that in a very short time, we would be seeing each other all the time and would be wanting to to find alone time! Yeah, I don't think he found the humor in that.

Nikki

In the beginning...

Wow, my first real blog. Myspace doesn't count...I can control that a little. I'm sure I can do that here too, but I haven't done any searching for it. There's really only one person in particular I would care to keep this from, let's hope he doesn't find it!

I really have started this because of my best friend Jennifer in Nacogdoches. She always gets a kick out my stories of my fiance and me and thinks I should blog about it. So, blog I shall.

I read quite a few blogs...I am a self-proclaimed internet junkie. If you want to know something, I will google until I find the answer. Josh, my fiance, makes fun of me for this. He has a way of using vocabulary in the wrong context or pronunciation, so I go to dictionary.com, look up the word and then send it to him. He says I correct him too much, which is probably true, but I look at it as doing him a favor...I don't want him walking around saying things incorrectly! Most people would probably not notice, but there may come a time that he says the wrong thing to the right person and he'll look like a fool. He usually doesn't see it this way though. I am also a huge fan of snopes.com. You know all those crazy forwards you get about some lady that was abducted in the Target parking lot because she tried to help on old lady, well go to snopes, search for it and see if it's true or not. Most of the time they are false, and I can't stand getting false information. Anyways, the point of this paragraph is that I can't wait to be able to share some of the amazing blogs of some pretty amazing people.

Quite a bit is happening in my life right now, and this space is going to be a great way to get it all out there and hopefully make some new friends along the way. A little breakdown of the life and times of Nikki that I will elaborate more on later:
~Getting married in October!!!
~Buying a house right now!
~My dog getting sick...and sending me to the poorhouse
~My sister
~And probably a few more things that are escaping me at the moment

Stay tuned for more!!!

Nikki