A Healthier Lifestyle

For the past eight years I have struggled with finding a comfortable weight. This is the heaviest I have been, and throughout our trip I HATED having my picture taken. It was horrible, and I hated the way I felt. I am dedicated to losing some weight. It is going to be really hard especially with the start of my second year of teaching coming up (I really enjoy stress eating).

So I need you all to keep me in check. Keep me honest. I am going on a healthy eating diet and I am going to regularly exercise. No gimmicks or crash diets - just good honest healthy living. The first thing to go is soda & fast food. I don't eat fast food often (minus my recent road trip where there was little other options sometimes), but I am a coke addict. Coca Cola of course. Ever since I started being friends with my FI, he has got me hooked on coke and caffeine.

I always say I am going to start my diet tomorrow. Well, I am starting my diet right now. This is about feeling good about myself and feeling sexy again. My wedding is also a good motivation for doing well with my diet.

Thanks for your help in advance! Make sure to keep me honest!

Home Sweet Apartment

I am back from the craziest adventure I have ever had. We had such an amazing time seeing the country. It was UNREAL everything we did and experienced. I may just have to refer you to my other blog if you are interested in hearing about all our exploits:


It is too much to sum it all up in one short post. I can show you some awesome pictures though!
This is us in front of the Grand Tetons. Aren't they magnificent?
This is us in front of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is also called the Artist's Paintpoint because it is the most photographed place in the park.


This is the "weeping wall" which is run off from the melting snow and glaciers on the mountains. This was located in Glacier National Park.

On to the animals! We saw 13 bears in one day! You need to be pretty careful about food and hiking in Glacier. They have a very healthy number of bears. In Glacier we also saw some Bighorn Sheep REALLY up close which is uncommon because they keep to themselves & a million mountain goats. We also saw a wolf in Yellowstone which are very rare to see. There were Bison everywhere and we definitely got caught in a few bison traffic jams. Damn animals just sit in the roads!There were many elk in Rocky Mountain National Park as well as a few coyotes and we saw some Bighorn Sheep here too. There were plenty of deer and antelope throughout our entire trip. Oh ew. We saw two rattlesnakes in Theodore Roosevelt Park. GROSS!
Everything was truly amazing though and although FI and I had some tiffs - camping can be stressful and a lot of work - we enjoyed each other's company IMMENSELY. It was really a very rewarding trip.
And you know what? I have hardly thought of wedding planning at all. I am off to read some great blogs and catch up on everything I have missed.

A Break in Wedding Planning to . . .

RELAX, VACATION, and spend some quality time with my FI. Yes, I will be taking a 2 1/2 week wedding planning & dreaming, blog reading, phone call making, appointment keeping hiatus. Why? Well, FI is a hiking & camping whore. He loves it. Growing up, his family took a lot of camping trips and even took TWO road trips across the country.
Well, we are taking a road trip just FI and I on a National Park Tour. Our National Park Tour began (unexpectedly for me) with our engagement at Acadia National park, but we will continue it to Rocky Mountain


Grand Teton



Yellowstone National Park


Glacier (!!!)


Theodore Roosevelt


Mount Rushmore


Home.


It is going to take 2 1/2 weeks and we will be sleeping in tents the entire time! (Minus 5 nights of hotels and lodges). We will go hiking, horseback riding, out to dinner, rafting, canoeing/kayaking, boating, sightseeing and just enjoy each other's company by the fire at night. I can't wait but I am not a camper like him. This is a true test of our love and patience I think but at the same time, is going to be an AMAZING experience. These are the pictures from his last trip to Colorado when he was in high school. I cannot wait to see what beautiful pictures he takes on this trip!
Do you have any plans for trips pre-wedding? How do you relax and stop stressing/planning for the big day?

This is going to be photo heavy. . .

My E-PICS ARE HERE!
Okay here are my favorites. I apologize but I cannot narrow it down. I narrowed it down to two and then back up to ten. I just love them all.
































If you had to pick ONE which would you pick? And which one would you pick as a second choice?
I still have 30 more that I love too!

Did you get your engagement pictures taken? Did a family member or friend help you out with a wedding project and EXCEED all expectations?

My first DIY attempt

So I am not crafty . . . I really wish I was crafty but I'm just not. My mother stopped putting up my art creations in 3rd grade. I had peaked.

Well now that I am planning the wedding and seeing all the cute crafty things out there. I cannot help but want to create some of my own!!! My first attempt was origami. Really how can you mess up some folding? The first three were MAJOR failures.

I will post some pictures when I do it in our wedding colors with the leaves. My vision is to fold these bad boys and then put small leaves on the bottom of them with peoples names and table numbers. This is what they should look like:Source with Great Tutorial

They will be the ESCORT CARDS! Aren't they gorgeous? I stole this idea from Mrs. Guinea Pig on weddingbee.

We think we will add clothespins and clip them to our wishing tree. Once everyone has their escort cards, they can come back to the tree and redecorate it with our wedding wishes and make it look like this:

Source

So I made a few prototypes and boy am I going to have some busy bridesmaids making these. You need five petals for each flower and I need 180 flowers. Yep, we are talking almost 1000 petals. Mean mean bride-to-be. I took my prototypes and they are making a really cute centerpiece right now. My bridesmaids are coming over tomorrow for Bridesmaid dress shopping wait until they seem them. hahaha.

What was your first DIY project?

Our Baby

I never shared with you our baby!

One day, we decided we wanted a kitten. It was strange because neither of us are too fond of cats, but due to the size of our apartment we cann
ot get a dog. We were longing for that nonjudgmental love a dog gives its owners. We thought about it and looked at adorable pictures of kittens on Adopt Cat Sites. Check these out:














FI said no. No.No.No. We love to go away and it is too much work and money for us. I whined a bit and we went to the pet store to check out their adopt-a-pet clinic. We wandered toward the hamsters & bunnies section.

In an effort not to get a cat, we got a hamster. The equation doesn't make much sense, but we got a dwarf hamster and he is so adorable. Is he cuddly and loving? No. Do I watch him and laugh constantly? yes.
We named him Lucky because on the first day I lost him in the car (long story) and he is SUPER fast & quick and we were lucky to have every found and caught him.

So here is our Lucky little one:


Do you have any pets? Are you and FI on the same page about what is an appropriate pet? Isn't Lucky the cutest?

LOST

Source

Before I get into the sad tale of the above shoes, I want to make a confession. Deep Breath. I do not care for shoes. I don't know what it is but I dislike shoe shopping. No, really really dislike, detest, abhor shoe shopping. I would rather go to the dentist than go to the shoe store. I wear flats or flip flops every.single.day. I have a pair of sneakers, two pairs of flats and a pair of flip flops in my closet.

That said. I came across this picture on WeddingBee (my all-time favorite wedding site). I gasped. I had no idea that I had dream shoes, and yet, there they were! However, when following the source, giddy with excitement on finding my wedding shoes, I realized they were for a vintage shop on etsy. Size of the shoes? 6 1/2 My size? 8 1/2. DAMN!

Anyone seen my long lost love, vintage bluebell heels? Anyone lust after an item you never thought you would want/care about?