YIPEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

My Mom arrives today! I get to have her for a whole week before our wedding. I haven't seen her in a year. We speak regularly on the phone, but it doesn't compare to having her full time. It's been one of the hardest things to go without living so far from home. The woman spoiled me (in more ways than one), and it's just going to be absolutely stupendous to have her around.

I love you Mom!!!!

TWO WEEKS!!!

We picked up our marriage license yesterday. Two weeks from today I'll be Mrs. Wendell Hess. The anticipation of becoming an "honest woman" and seeing my family is driving me bonkers! The excitement of it all keeps me up late at night and helps me move along despite the lack of rest and constant fatigue. The butterflies in my belly are flapping their wings at an increasingly fervent rate. I know the day will be here in a heartbeat and will be over much too quickly. I can't wait to soak it all in.

And, I'm so glad my mom will be here in one week. It's going to be such a comfort to have her here with me for a week.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

The Last 30 Days

It's here. The home stretch. We are exactly 30 days away from our wedding date.

After these next 30 days I will no longer check the "single" or "living with partner" box on any paperwork I fill out. I'll have to get use to being called "Mrs." instead of "Miss". I'll have to learn to sign a new last name. And, I'll actually have a piece of jewelry that I'll never take off.

There won't be much in day to day living that will change. I'll still give him grief about cleaning up. He'll still give me grief about my shopping habits. Dog hair will still be everywhere. I'll spend too much time online. He'll spend too much time playing xbox. Our love will continue to grow. We've already fused our lives together as a pair. We do just about everything together. And when we're not together, we miss one another. We've already made the mental, emotional and spiritual commitment to one another. The only thing that will be different after these 30 days is that it will be legal.

It almost makes me feel grown up.......ALMOST!

I know postings have been scarce, but in all honesty we've been busy.....and tired! All that should change after these next 30 days. Stay tuned for upcoming details on our continuing journey.......

100

In 100 days I'll be Mrs. Wendell Hess. 100 days!!! To celebrate this day I'm going to share 100 reasons why I love my future husband. They are; in no particular order:

1. He'll hold my purse when I go to the bathroom in public places.

2. He constantly tells me that he loves me.

3. His answer to my many suggestions for our home is "Whatever makes you happy".

4. He's a dork just like me.

5. He loves me even when I'm grumpy, PMSing, and generally unpleasant.

6. He likes to surprise me with breakfast in bed.

7. I can use him like a jungle gym.

8. He writes me random love notes.

9. He'll watch chick flicks with me (he's even liked a few).

10. He likes it when I curse him out in Spanish.

11. He buys me chocolate.

12. When "Aunt Flo" comes to town he'll pick me up tampons, midol and more chocolate.

13. He writes me love songs.

14. He doesn't just tell me I'm beautiful, he makes me feel it.

15. We can take a 3 hour car drive in complete silence.

16. He's incredibly smart.

17. He smells good without cologne.

18. He defends my honor.

19. Despite his tough exterior, he's a big teddy bear.

20. He doesn't care if I post pictures like this online:

21. He won't complain when I listen to techno even though he hates it.

22. He'll do yoga with me.

23. On more than one occassion he's made a 2+ hour drive home in the wee hours of the morning so I wouldn't spend all night alone.

24. Everyone who meets him instantly loves him.

25. His kisses.

26. He's seen my fugly side and didn't run away screaming.

27. He likes to watch me go about my business when I have no idea he's looking.

28. He'll fix my computer every time I "break" it.

29. He's the first person to really see me for who I am (other than family).

30. He can always make me laugh. Even when I'm mad and don't want to.

31. He can admit when he's wrong, and even say he's sorry.

32. He can put me in my place when I'm out of line and still be respectful.

33. He finds my OCDness endearing. He's even taken to calling me his "little aviator".

34. He'd rather learn to do something than to pay someone to do it.

35. He enjoys a hot bubble bath for two.

36. Loving him has taught me how to really love myself.

37. He loves my feet.

38. He'll take me out so I can dance even though he doesn't care for the environment.

39. He's old fashioned and chivalrous.

40. He's a rockstar. See:

41. He always compliments my cooking even when I know it's not that great.

42. He checks with me before he makes plans with friends (not because he needs permission, he's just courteous like that).

43. He emails me at work with random humor and to tell me he loves me.

44. He's uber sweet with our dogs.

45. He sacrifices things he wants to give me things I want.

46. He likes to smell my hair.

47. He finds humor in inappropriate places.

48. He's probably the hardest worker I know.

49. He inspires me to be a better person.

50. With him, I've found true happiness.

51. His infectious laugh.

52. The way he speaks to me is different from how he speaks to anyone else.

53. He'll tell me if my outfit doesn't look good.

54. Despite the fact that he may be roasting, he won't fuss much over the thermostat in the winter.

55. With him I'm learning to ask myself "do I need it? or do I just want it?" when I'm shopping.

56. He's teaching me to be better at not taking anyones crap.

57. He'll listen to my stories. Even if I've told him the same story 3 times before.

58. He'll send me flowers at work, just because.

59. He lets me sleep in on the weekends despite the fact that if I was up first I'd probably wake him up.

60. He loves Scooby-Doo as much as I do:

61. He's just as excited about planning our wedding as I am.

62. He does what he can to help people.

63. He brags about me.

64. When my car gets real dirty, he'll wash it for me.

65. He encourages me to pursue my interests.

66. He trusts me to buy his clothes.

67. I feel safe with him, even when he's ridiculously drunk.

68. He sautees mushrooms for me.

69. Like me, he's just a kid trapped in a grown-ups body.

70. He's quite the smart-ass.

71. His nickname of choice: Cap'n Fishnets

72. An incredible piece of music can move him to tears.

73. He doesn't complain when I turn into the Recycling Police.

74. He calls me Bean.

75. He is slowly but surely teaching me patience.

76. He'll take silly photobooth pictures with me (blogger couldn't handle the odd size) =0/

77. His big ass hands make my big hands look small.

78. He lets me use him as my "man purse" when we go out.

79. He leaves the seat down, and I never even had to ask.

80. His "game face" when he plays video games:

81. He really doesn't care what other people think.

82. The man can cook.

83. With him, I look forward to growing old.

84. He understands that as much as I love the country, I'm a city girl.

85. He'll play in the rain with me.

86. He lets me touch him with my cold hands and feet so I can get warm.

87. The way he teases me.

88. We live a drama free life.

89. Despite that he likes the house to be cave like, he won't complain when I open up all the curtains and blinds to let the light in.

90. He gets me the most awesome-est gifts.

91. He loves to say "I'm huge in Japan".

92. He's all tatted up.

93. He's a peanut butter junkie like I'm a chocoholic (yin & yang, baby).

94. We can be at a party where we hardly see each other and then we'll have a blast swapping stories.

95. He's great with kids.

96. He understands that mornings suck and silence is best.

97. We never part without a kiss (or kisses) and an I love you.

98. He talks in his sleep.

99. He can put up with me in a way very few people have, and that was mostly family.

100. The way he looks at me:

We're SO Excited.....

About our new vacuum!

We both highly anticipated getting the package containing our new vaccum. We have two four legged babies, and the amount of dog hair and dirt was driving us crazy (mostly me). After a couple of uses, we're totally in love with this thing!

Yeah I know, we're dorks. Domesticated dorks.

Four Months!

We are exactly four months away from our wedding! FOUR MONTHS!!! While I am incredibly anxious to become "Mrs. Wendell Hess", I'm freaking out over how much still needs to be done in such a short amount of time. I swear it was only yesterday that we had eight months to go, and now we're at four.....FOUR!

Time is our biggest obstacle. With the many DIY projects for our wedding time is of the essence. We've been doing so much running around that most spare moments we have we are simply trying to catch our breath. We are currently a pair of freak outs. Wendell is freaking out over money and school while I freak out over decor, our ceremony/vows and our house never being as clean as I'd like it to be.

The main thing that keeps us going is the fact that no matter what happens, doesn't happen, or simply goes horribly wrong, at the end of our wedding day we will still be husband and wife. Well, as long as neither one of us has a heart attack from now until then!

I'm A Gourmet Micowave Chef!

Well, maybe not "gourmet", but practice is definitely improving my skill. A couple of weeks ago we had tile put in our kitchen and adjacent room. Of course we had to move our stove. Upon returning our stove to it's proper place, we plugged it in, turned the knobs and watched the lights come on. The burners and oven however, did not.

We pulled it back out, wiggled some wires and even pondered kicking it. Wendell then removed the back panel in search of loose wires or a reset button, he even tinkered with the fuses, but nothing! Defeated, we scooted our oven back into it's corner in it's current non-working status. And then we pouted.

A new stove isn't exactly in our budget at the moment with a wedding coming up and all so, it was tuna for dinner! And peanut butter sandwiches the next night. We had very few items we could prepare in the microwave, but we had lots of veggies. The last couple of weeks had run us ragged and by the time we got home neither one of us wanted to head to the store. So, with some inspiration from a friend I turned to our friend Google to find some recipes.

It's been hit or miss. I was very excited about the first recipe I found. Until I took a bite. Adding loads of salt helped, but I really wanted to find the person who posted the recipe and smack them. I followed every detail of the recipe and it just seemed like someone had played a cruel joke! It was bad enough that I couldn't cook properly, but I pictured this person sitting at their desk in a dark room laughing it up a la Vincent Price at the assault some poor unsuspecting person's taste buds were going to endure.

A few recipes later, and it's really not that bad. One thing I do love about being a micro-chef (and I'm not referring to my height) is the amount of time it takes. Most of these meals are ready in 30 minutes or less. And with the weather warming up, it'll be nice not to have to stand in front of a hot stove while it's 80 degrees out.

I'll post some pictures of the awesome tile we now have in our Mexi-Tica kitchen once the place is clean enough to have pictures taken. Yes, we've been THAT lazy folks. Well, I should say busy and therefore too tired to give the kitchen the proper cleaning it deserves. I have started to develop a twitch, so it shouldn't be much longer before my kitchen is back to it's normal sparkling state.

Stay tuned!

Handy Man!

10 years ago, I never thought that getting a NEW dishwasher would be so exciting (domestication at it's best, eh?)! And with this recent purchase the process of making our first home "ours" continues.

Our upcoming wedding has re-lit a little fire under our butts to get back to working on the house. Our original "fire" burned hot and fast, but as most fires that burn hot and fast, it burned out fast too.

After some initial frustration and having my fingers smashed Wendell installed our brand new dishwasher. We finally got rid of the old crusty white one which had yellowed and was a complete eyesore. And now we have THIS:

*Insert singing angel voices here*

One appliance down, three to go! Stay tuned for more stainless steel beauty.

XOXO

A Review of Our First Year In Our 'hood

It has been a little over year since Wendell and I bought our first home. We've had quite a bit of fun making it "ours" and like most new homeowners we started out with a BANG! Planning, buying materials, choosing colors and painting. It only took us a couple of months to burn out, we slowed our roll resting on idle many times.

Seeing the fruits of our labor blossom hasn't been the only excitement we've had over the last year. We've met some colorful neighbors and have had a rather active block. You may remember the fire last year that ruined our car. There was also a couple of older ladies busted for providing some twenty somethings with their prescription drugs; a neighbor who was shot in the rear as he was being "robbed"; and most recently ANOTHER fire! There's even a police car parked in front of our house to deter criminal activity. Although I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the recent fire or not. All I know is that it's taking up my parking spot!

Apparently we had a crazy mofo living in our midst. He BURNED DOWN HIS OWN HOUSE!!! When he was questioned by police his response was "It was time it happened". You can read more about his statements here. Apparently he has also confessed to starting that fire last year which cost us a car, so you can imagine my disdain towards this guy. I don't think anything has been proven to that affect, but a confession is good enough for me.

Now, we don't live in some run down 'hood where crime and thugs run amok. Wendell and I are lucky enough to live in between to extremely quiet homes. One is owned by a little old lady who is now living in a Senior center, so the house is empty. The other house is occupied by 4 college students who are on the tennis team and are rarely ever home. We don't have to put up with any noise and we get to make all the noise we want!

We have several friendly neighbors who we make idle chit chat with from time to time. There's a couple across the street who we talk to on a fairly regular basis, Gary & Eddie. They're awesome! And they keep a close eye on the neighborhood, which I like. Wendell and I have spent several weekends away from home, so it's nice to know someone is keeping an eye out.

This year is going to continue to be exciting for us. There are still several changes we want to make around the house before we have guests come in for our wedding. And of course there's all that comes with planning a wedding. We're just hoping it's the good kind of excitement and not the kind that wakes you up at 2:30am during the work week and that's accompanied by sirens and red and blue lights.

The Diamond Engagement Ring "Tradition"

Getting engaged has been one of THE most exciting moments of my life (duh, right?). We received many congratulations the night of, and many more came in as our friends and family heard the news.


When Wendell proposed he mentioned that we have always been an unconventional couple. Firstly, we met online. That was something even I use to tease people about, until it happened to me. I was the one who flew out to meet him. We bought a house together before we were even engaged. And most recently we got engaged sans the "traditional" diamond engagement ring (insert gasps, wide eyed looks and sympathy head tilts here, pffffffft!).


We had been talking about marriage for some time before our actual engagement. There is no doubt in either one of our hearts or minds that we are meant to be together. There aren't sufficient words to explain what this love has done for me, for us and our lives in general. When we realized that money was the ONLY thing keeping us from getting married we decided we were not going to let THAT keep us from tying the knot.


Since our engagement I have taken advantage of sharing the news with just about anyone who cares to hear it (and sometimes those who don't). Co-workers, the bank tellers, the mail lady, neighbors, the cashier at the Mexican restaurant I frequent, you get the idea. There is one thing that bothers me when I do share this news with others and it's not the automatic glance towards my ring finger. I understand how accustomed our society is to the idea of a diamond engagement ring. That doesn't get to me, I even expected the glances and questions in regards to my naked ring finger. What really gets to me are certain reactions I get when I say "there is no engagement ring". I get everything from "awww" accompanied by a head tilt, surprised oh's, to raised eyebrows that come with a matter-of-fact "huh" (insert eye roll here).

The diamond engagement ring isn't even a tradition rooted in romance, it stems from a clever marketing ploy by De Beers that began in the 1930's after the Great Depression. The history and traditions of engagement vary by location, culture, religion, etc. Some are as simple as a man giving a woman a pair of gloves or even a twig! There are many beautiful, rarely practiced traditions (in the true sense of the word) when it comes to engagement that I can't help but wonder how so many were conned into believing that nothing short of a diamond ring would do.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not anti lavish gifts and diamond rings are lovely items, I just disagree with the concept that they are a necessity. Wendell has demonstrated his love for me in countless ways on a daily basis. I don't need him to dish out two months salary just to reiterate what he's already more than proven to me. Hell, Paris Hilton recieved a 24 carat diamond engagement ring and we (sadly) all know that relationship lasted about as long as a tic tac.

Despite telling him that "the ring" doesn't matter to me he insists on getting me one as soon as possible. I won't deny him that privilege. I'm not one to turn down a gift. I like telling people that he has given me more than I had ever hoped for and has made me insanely happy. There isn't a single gem of any size in the entire world that could hold the value of what that means to me. So, materialistic women can scoff all they want, they'll probably never know a love like ours.