nostalgicMy friend, Sarah, from work enjoys most of the same types of movies I do. For me, this is hard to find as I'm a 23-year-old who loves old black and white movies, musicals, kid movies, etc. I'm so excited because we've decided to try and start a ritual of movie nights! We even let our nerdy sides show even more and decided for the nights to have themes! Tonight is our first date, and the theme is 3D MOVIES!
1st Movie
Coraline
2nd Movie
Little Shop of Horrors(The classic horror movie - not the musical)
excited
intimidated
productive
We can cross another one of the big numbers off of the 101 list because something wonderful happened last Sunday...
Bryan proposed! I was SO surprised! Let met just start by saying that I SWORE I would know when he bought the ring and then again I would know when he was planning the engagement. I think he and his close family knew this, so he tried a little harder than normal to hide it. It might be that I'm slightly naive, but I had no idea what was coming!
A few days before, he threw out the idea of going down to Ocean City Maryland where his grandparents have a time share at a condo. Thinking nothing of it, and always looking for an excuse to do something other that spend time at home, I was more than willing to go. He did surprisingly well at being nonchalant about the whole thing. Not once did I get the feeling that we were going to the beach for anything other than just to hang out. His sister, brother in law, nephew, Mommom, and Poppop were all down there by the time we got settled in. We talked, ate dinner, and made our way back to the condo. Ryan had to leave for work the next morning bright and early(which I thought was weird, but never thought that he came down for a more momentous occasion), so Alicia said she wanted Ryan to be there for Judes first time at the beach. Once again, thinking nothing of it, I was excited to walk on the beach at night.
Even more naive... we took pictures of Ryan, Alicia, and Jude, and were just standing looking at the waves when Bryan says, "Lets walk down by the water". I say, "the waters cold"... not thinking anything, and turn around to see Ryan turn around to Alicia awkwardly and say "Sooo....", you know, the thing where you make fake awkward comments to make it look like you're deep in conversation. Still, instead of thinking, "somethings fishy", I just thought Ryan was being a little weirdo. A few minutes later Bryan was down on one knee. My first reaction was, "What?", and as he stuttered through his prepared speech in what seemed to be painful nervousness, I apparently ended up saying, "you can stop talking, I'll marry you" and put my beautiful ring on. I was so ridiculously shocked and we were both excited.
Later on that night we sat on the beach together and he told me all about the plans and what his speech was supposed to say. At one point he even said, "well, now we can cross two things off the list!" He's such a "keeper". Now the real fun begins!
jubilantOnly one more week until I can drink soda again! Its a few more days after that before we can have fast food again, but besides some Chick Fil-A waffle fries and sweet tea, I'm not at all interested in rushing to a fast food joint to get a fix. Soda, on the other hand, is a different story. While I dont want to get back into drinking it regularly, I really do crave an ice cold refreshing soda every once in a while. Bryan and I found that while dining at restaurants and ordering our drinks, it was pretty tough to not order a soda. It used to be so natural to order two cokes and it was actually awkward to have to ask what they offered besides soda(since Bryan nearly refuses to drink water while eating).
On a smaller note: I went out to potstickers with some friends from work on Friday night and I had another first. I tried sushi. This was a big step for me because I don't like most cooked fish, so I was very intimated by the thought of eating them raw. I am not anxious to get my second tasting, but it was not as bad as I had expected. It made me feel more cultured :).
As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, Bryan and I have been weighing and tossing around the idea to move our projected wedding date up a year earlier. We figured that it mainly depended on whether we could slash the budget a tiny bit to make it easier to save before the big day. So, our plan was to call Milburn Orchards (the place I have my heart set on for the ceremony and reception) to see how much it would cost to go through them. So Saturday we finally were called back and given a number that was WAY below what we had expected! As it looks now, we will probably be getting married in 2010 instead of 2011. It’s already exciting/stressful to think about. I think we will definitely know by October whether or not we can pull it off which will give us a year worth of planning time to get things put together. This way, we will have a few months to know if we can put together all of the money we would need and we would be able to go up to Millburn’s around the same time of year that we want to get married to be able to make sure it will work for us around their busy season.
The only major downside to this is that our planned trip (To Disney, or Ireland, or wherever we were going to decide to go) will probably have to be put on hold. I hope we can make up for this with small trips. We already plan on visiting Niagara this summer or fall. We thought that by getting a mortgage we would be so tight that we would be eating ramen noodles by candle light for the first few months, but so far, the $400 jump between the apartment and here has been barely noticeable. If anything, it’s been all of the renovations that have made a difference simply because our spending pattern has changed. Anyway, stay tuned for more updates.
Poor Bryan better get a move on it. Time is quickly closing in on the poor guy!
giddyOn Saturday, Bryan and I attended the wedding of a friend I made while working at Michael’s Arts and Crafts a few years ago. Obviously, I took my new “comparable” camera to take pictures (that I still have to upload… slacker). Point being – I was not in love with the camera. Even though it was almost twice the MP of my old camera, I was unhappy with the quality of the pictures. I looked on Best Buys reviews for the camera, and apparently it was not something I was doing wrong. Out of the few people who wrote reviews, more than 75% of them said they took the camera back because they were so displeased with the quality. When I was in Best Buy speaking to the Geek Squad, they mentioned that if I bought a nicer camera, I would just have to pay the difference.
My 101 List contained a goal to fix and learn how to use my grandfathers camera. My grandfather had one of the old bulky cameras with multiple attachments and settings. I wanted to learn how to use it and see if I liked it so that I could better weigh the possibility of purchasing a digital SLR camera. But when the opportunity arose, Bryan and I decided to take the plunge and buy the camera while we could receive $300 off. With a new house, a wedding that lately seems it might be pushed up a year, and plans for trips and vacations, we knew that pulling 5-600 out to buy a new camera would be a farfetched reality. Plus, we just bought the small point and shoot camera for our underwater adventures that will be convenient to take on our smaller, less significant, adventures. There’s no need to have two of them.
Anyway, Bryan and I, along with Alicia who has had a similar camera for a few years now, ventured to Best Buy yesterday after work and we picked up our very own Nikon D40. I’m very excited and can’t wait to learn how to use all of its features!
artistic
Our little Marsha had her first birthday on the 4th of May. Being the wonderful puppy-parents we are, we wanted to do something to make her know that it was a special day. So, I went online and found a recipe for Peanut Butter Pupcakes! I made little cupcakes adorned with little dog bones. We gave them to her as daily treats as well, and even sent some home with other doggy friends, but for her birthday we put a candle in one of the cupcakes that were specifically made for big dogs. Sadly, I do not currently have pictures.
While trying to take the lens cap off of my camera, it fell out of my hands and broke. It would no longer turn on and the screen was cracked. We took pictures, but it was with Bryans moms’ camera… and of course we didn’t get the pictures before she left. I feel I had a pretty good run with the camera (3 years – going on 4), so we just sighed and decided that Bryan would go and look at cameras on his day off. We are regular Best Buy shoppers, but we’ve never bought one of their protection plans… or so we thought. While Bryan, Alicia, and Mom were looking at cameras, Bryan decided to check if we had purchased one, “just in case”, and much to our surprise, we did! So, of course we were ecstatic that we wouldn’t have to put the money out to buy a new camera until we learned that it would take 10 business days for us to have a camera again.
That was unacceptable. We knew that Alicia was to get induced in two days, and my friend Alicia, whom I used to work with, was getting married on Saturday. We could not miss taking pictures at two big events! Being the awesome boyfriend he is, and knowing that I was getting upset at the thought of not being able to capture the moments, Bryan very cleverly suggested that we get a waterproof digital camera. If you’ve been reading my journal long enough, you’d know that we bought snorkel gear for our cruise last November/December, and I had wished that we had thought to try and purchase a waterproof digital camera before departure. I’m so excited and can’t wait to use it this summer!!!
Of course, how things must happen, we got a call from Best Buy a few hours before the wedding and were able to pick out a comparable camera in perfect timing. Still, I’m glad we didn’t miss the arrival of Uncle Bryans first pride and joy… and a new toy is always fun!
excitedSo we decided that today will be the start of our “month without soda” from our 101 list (available on my profile). I think we both underestimated how hard it is going to be. For example: I had to buy lunch today because we didn’t have much to pack. Usually on Fridays, I will buy one of the delicious sandwiches from work that come with potato chips and a fountain soda. I LOVE fountain sodas… so, it inevitably causes a dilemma for me. Either I can’t get the sandwich, or I’ll have to stare delicious cherry coke straight in the eye and have the strength to pass.
Not only are we trying NOT to drink sodas, but we’re trying to replace it with water. My intentions are that this may hopefully continue well past the 30 day mark and help us to be healthier. I always hear of people saying they lost weight by cutting out soda. I really hope this to be the case with us, but I’m not getting my hopes up. We rarely actually have soda in the house, and I don’t feel like we go out to eat enough where it would make a difference. I guess we’ll see in a month. I hope we can stay strong!!!
PS. Many more blogs to come when I get use of the home computer and upload some pictures!
working
There have been so many changes since we moved into our first house nearly a month ago. One of my favorite changes concerns our little girl, Marsha Mellow.
At the apartment, Marshas cage was always located near the sliding glass doors. It was placed there when we first got her, and was never moved due to the convenience of being able to take her outside so easily. I'm not even sure why this happened, but in the new house, we put her cage in our room. Besides the constant whining if shes in the cage while we're in the room, its proven to be a great decision. To our dismay, Marsha has always spent all night in her cage. We tried time and time again to let her sleep with us, but she would usually get bored of sitting quietly after a short time or would "accidentally" pee the bed, and would be ushered off to be put back into her cage. The whole point of this being that since we've been in the new house, she's been sleeping with us all night everynight with no problem.
I've even started to wheen her out of her cage when we leave. I've trusted her to roam the room a few times when I left, and came home to find her peacefully eating on of her bones on the bed. I was even brave enough to let her roam the whole front end of the house once and came home with only on minor tragedy - she mutilated someones water bottle. Not only do I love waking up to see her floppy ears and smiling face, but her good behavior tells us that all of our training is FINALLY starting to pay off.
Plus... the sooner we can break all of her bad habits, the sooner we can look at getting her a brother or sister(dog, that is) ;)
You know why I haven’t written in a while? We don’t have internet hooked up at our house. You would think that living with a “communications technician”, as he calls himself, that wouldn’t be a problem. HA! I now feel Alicia’s pain when Ryan is working on other peoples problems and she mentions, “You know, our bathroom needs drywall”. They’re always so quick to help other people, aren’t they Alicia?
We moved in to the house last Tuesday the 31st and thanks to friends and family members, it’s a million times better than it was when we first moved in. I have before pictures posted on Facebook and once I can find the charger for my camera battery I will take some after pictures as well. I will try to keep up with the progress.
So far we’ve:
I suppose that’s the most of it, but boy what a difference it has made! We’re hoping within the next week or so to get the fence started for Marsha, paint anything we can, get rid of the appliance graveyard our porch has turned out to be, and get more work done on the bathrooms. Ah, the gratification!
cheerful silly
geeky
Proud
relaxed