Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The "Big News" Blog

Alright, alright! People keep asking about the whole engagement thing, so I figured as always I better answer to the masses. I have been avoiding it because I don't want to bore people, but I better at least give an update. After this I hope to keep the "wedding planning" updates to a dull roar. This Sunday we went wine tasting with his mom as per tradition... it was great! Then we got some steaks and grilled with his mom and Gary. :) Monday we both worked and then went to a BBQ at his aunt and uncle's house.

The proposal:
No grand story here folks, but it was a perfect little story for me. I had to go to Arizona for business on Tuesday, May 22. Geoff drove me to the airport (just the local airport in Hillsboro for a charter/shuttle flight) and as I was getting out of the car he said "you almost forgot something!", then pulled out his ring box and said "Will you marry me?" There was some other stuff in there, but I promise nothing romantic or anything. :) I said yes and that was that... then I flew away.

The current plans:
I *just* found out today that we officially have a date, it's this August 11 in Dallas, TX. We chose Dallas because it's closer to my family (especially grandparents who are a good 10 - 15 years older than his) and somewhat centrally located. The timing is based on the fact that my sister is looking for jobs in Spain and that is one of the few times that she will definitely be in the country. Also, his brother and sister will be in school this fall and we don't want to wait a whole year. Those are some of the main reasons, although there are certainly others. We are getting married at Spring Valley United Methodist Church, which is my parent's church. Pastor Anna will be marrying us. We're going to Dallas June 15 - June 18 so Geoff can meet my dad and sister, so we can meet Pastor Anna, and for a few other wedding details. After the wedding we will most likely have a BBQ type party at my parent's house. I don't know much but I know there will be NO DANCING. :) I have been talking to a photographer I found on Craigslist named Annette (see the *Ann* theme? odd huh?) and I REALLY like her. I am thinking of booking her! For colors, we are thinking either just red, or a combo of red/orange/yellow/pink. Here Comes the Bride will not be played, it was vetoed by my sister and Geoff. Instead we will have Canon in D. (I'm trying to think of questions people keep asking me).

The Registries:
I am only writing about this because I find it funny and amusing for blogging and think my readers will appreciate it. We weren't going to register, but his family HIGHLY suggested it and that we do it soon, plus I think my mom would have thought we were crazy if we didn't. She said people will get you things regardless, so you might as well give them choices of things you like. Okay. Anyway, here are some of the funny things about registering: the MOST funny is that Geoff registered for a lint roller! I was like "why?" and he said "to clean my suit before the wedding". Hmmm okay, whatever you freak. :) And he said if I remove it he will then add THREE more. So yikes... better keep that on there. That's my favorite part of the registry now. Then... they asked us to pick out a "fine china" pattern and an "everyday" pattern. Only for the everyday pattern she picked up Noritake Colorwave mug, SLAMMED it against the desk and said "it's practically indistrucable, you must go with this". So we did (and actually we do both like it). But once we picked the fine china and everyday patterns... they added like 40 different items on there!! Bowls and plates and platters and serving stuff and salt and pepper! Yikes. Oh well. It was just a very amusing process, and I'm sure those that are already married can relate, but I thought I'd share for those who aren't because it was TOO FREAKING FUNNY!!

Future Plans:
We're not going on a honeymoon right after the wedding, but we will probably go on a cruise sometime this fall or early summer. We'll also have a party / reception type thing in Oregon where we'll invite all of our friends and family. We're hoping that will be at one of our favorite vineyards! NO idea on the date yet... it will have to either be this August / September or not until next spring because of the weather. We are NOT kicking out our roommates, we love them and want to "keep" them (many people have been asking that question). I think those are all of the answers to the "big questions".

Monday, May 21, 2007

Super productive night!

Today was a GOOD day. Oh first of all - it was a GOOD weekend... Geoff and I were able to go shopping for him and me... we got him a bunch of stuff for his motorcycle, including new tools, gear (helmet/jacket), parts he needs, and a little tent thing for the side of the house. He had been saving for a motorcycle so since he didn't actually have to pay for the motorcycle itself, he had plenty to spend on fun stuff. He even got one of those Craftsman tool chests... I had a FIELD DAY organizing that. I should take pictures of that too! Sooo much fun! And for me... well, more cake stuff! Actually, mostly it was just a storage cabinet and large pink basket (can't find a link) that I organized all of the cake stuff in. I should have taken before and after pics... but I forgot. It looks much better, and we finally have a dining room again! Yaaaaay! :) Oh, I almost forgot... Saturday morning, I made my first cake I got paid for! It was a success. Anyway, it was a great weekend of storage and organization.

Today was a great day at work... I had a great intro meeting with the new finance manager, I got a really nice voicemail, and one other thing that made me happy that I can't remember at the moment. Then at home Geoff and I talked to my sister online for a bit and he went off to an inventory way down in Woodburn. I talked to my sister more until 7 (she is working a super boring job right now), then went to the grocery store, made guacamole for dinner, finished 40 fondant roses and made 30 fondant leaves (oh yeah - I forgot to mention I started/made about 50 fondant roses yesterday... it took 5 or 6 hours! Finishing them and the leaves only took about 2 hours tonight), took a shower, and packed... and it's still before 10 PM!! See, quite productive. The packing is for Arizona - I feel like I spend half my time there these days, kinda like my senior year of college when I went to LA all the time! I love travelling. Especially to the same place over and over (wow that sounds lame) because you get to know the place and kinda feel like a resident. Okay that's a stretch, but I do enjoy getting to know cities and having them be familiar. Arizona is pretty familiar to me by now. I so love it too, so I'm excited I get to go again! I'll be there until Thursday, when I have my final cake class of my final cake course! Tear... but that's okay. It'll be good. :)

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Readers Are Revolting

I hear that my readers are outraged and demand blogging. I have actually heard this from two different sources.

First off, ARIZONA for the Hart and Becky wedding. It was two weeks ago and I STILL have not blogged about it yet - I've been insanely busy, more on that later. Anyway, I also have not had time to look for my camera charger so I haven't been able to download the pictures yet either. Boo! But Geoff and I got in on Friday afternoon and ended up with a Mustang as a rental... Geoff was WAY excited, he loves Mustangs! We checked in at our hotel and cleaned up a bit, then met Emily, Kathleen, Stacey, and Tim at Grilled Expedition for happy hour. I was so nervous... I felt like it was a first date rather than meeting old friends! I think I was nervous to introduce them to Geoff. But it was great! Emily and I talked about how Patrick secretly had these planning skills all along and he could have been the one to plan stuff in high school! Dang... he did put together a great night. After that we went to Gordon Biersch for dinner... it was good but a little cold and windy since we sat outside! Then we went to The Library to hang out. That was REALLY fun because the wedding party came and joined us there after the rehersal dinner, so we saw Hart and Becky, Anthony, and Nikki. It was such a college bar!! Very fun. At one point "Whoop there it is" came on and Hart, Emily, Patrick, and I all jumped up off of the couch we were sitting on and started dancing! It was so random... it brought back memories from Spirit Squad in 7th grade. We had a special dance to that song. Hilarious! Just a wonderful night.

Saturday was fun! We met The Cohens (Randy and Laura... friends of mine from grade school that I got together in high school and later got married) for breakfast at The Waffle House. Funny! Laura and Geoff both know me so well so it was funny to listen to them talking about me. Hehe. :) Then Geoff and I drove around, Geoff got his hair cut, we played mini golf, etc. Then we went to the wedding and the reception and had another great night! It was a beautiful wedding... I ADORE the pink and orange color combo and fun was had by all. Geoff and I are these cake snobs so we stared at the cake beforehand and commented on how much better we could do - yeah right. Seriously the cake tasted AWESOME though!! Sooo yummy. I think it was French Buttercream which I REALLY need to learn how to make! :)

Sunday morning we had an early flight out and then I was soooo sick. I didn't even go to my cake class, boo! I stayed in bed all day. Monday I had my second day of work at Hallmark, Tuesday I had Remicade, Wednesday I had Hallmark, Thursday I had gym class and cake class, and by Friday I was just fried. On Saturday morning I quit Hallmark... I know, that's terrible, but I was finding that I wasn't loving it and my friend Kendra pointed out "if you don't NEED a second job and you don't LOVE your second job, what's the point of having a second job?" Good point, so I quit.

Sunday morning I made a beautiful daisy cake (which I didn't take pictures of, I'm sorry!) to take to Geoff's parents for Mothers Day! It was A HIT and I got my first "gig" decorating a cake for a graduation (Geoff's brother Trevor's girlfriend Kristy's high school graduation). YAY! I'm soooo excited. It was a fabulous night.

This week has been insane at work and stuff at home has been busy too. Wednesday we drove down to Sheridan (about an hour and a half south) so Geoff could pick up his dad's old motorcycle. For those that don't know, his dad passed away in February of 2000 from cancer. His Uncle Jeff had been holding onto the bike (he has a HUGE barn) and asked Geoff if he wanted it. Geoff jumped at the chance so we went down right away to pick it up! He worked on it all day yesterday... I'm so excited for him. It's really special that he can have something of his dad's. :)

Tonight we're going to a BBQ at Kendra and Beau's and I have another "gig" for tomorrow morning - decorating a birthday cake for my coworker Cindy's daughter Emily! Very exciting.

So lots of excitement going on... just too busy to write about it. Maybe more next week! Oh and some pics if I manage to find my camera this weekend! I'm headed home now... it is time to be done!

I'll leave you with one more thing... Wednesday I was soooo busy at work and needed to get out for a little bit, so Geoff was nice enough to take me to lunch. We went to BW3s and they have this little on screen trivia thing that you can play with the whole country at other BW3s, Old Chicago, Applebees, and other restaurants. So we decided to play, and there are 7 questions worth 1000 points each. You get 1000 points if you answer correctly immediately, then it keeps going down as you take more time. I got about 6500 points and beat Geoff and he was mad – then we saw that on that round, I beat EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY!!! I was soooo proud. Plus the local BW3s has a top winners board for the month, so I bumped down someone with about 5500 points that had been there since May 1!! HAHA. Then we played again… and I got about 5500 points and came in 12 in the country and then I got number TWO on the BW3 top local winners board. So I have the number 1 and number 2 spot. YAAAAAAAY for me. I’m sooo excited it was so fun!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Fly by post

I can't believe I haven't posted about Arizona yet! I had one of the most fun nights I've had in a looooooong time. I just had a blast with my old friends, and Geoff loved them too. I will post about that later today or tomorrow.

For now though... my family does something we call the "family chat bin" (don't remember where that came from)... basically it's an email to all of the people in the family, we probably get about 10 emails a day from it. Just my immediate family. Anyway, the bin has been kicking into high gear lately so I've been focused on that instead of my blog. This is what I wrote the bin this morning:

Good morning binners! Yesterday Hallmark was slightly better… I helped the sweetest old man who couldn’t see very well, so I read him the cards for mother’s day. It was pretty fun. He got two different mother’s day cards, one I couldn’t tell who it was for and one for his wife. Then he needed an anniversary card, but his wife was in the store so he was like “shhhhhhh”. So we went to the anniversary section and found him a card, he also had a hearing aid so I had to speak right into that so I could speak softly but so that he could hear. Pretty funny. He was very thankful. And then I checked out a lot of people and did some work on the card section. It is good but it’s not AMAZING. After that I went home and started going through the organics bin! We got some good stuff, including avocados so I can make some GUAC! Yum-o. Last night for dinner we split a ribeye steak and also had salad (all organic), peppers and onions grilled (onions were organic), and asparagus (organic) with cheese sauce. Mom, Geoff was a little bit skeptical of the cheese sauce but he LOVED IT. He couldn’t get enough! I told him I’d never had it much because it seems like Dad always gobbled it up every year and no one else got at it. Geoff said he’d have to be fighting Dad to get some! It was funny. He made it of course because I have no patience for things like melting cheese or chocolate or anything that could burn. Tonight while I’m at cake class he’s going to cut up some mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions, oh and maybe a sirloin, for us to fondue up tonight. We still have stuff left over to make the dill sauce plus all the veggies so we are gonna do that! And we got another leek and Geoff was like “pleeeeeease more leek rings!” I didn’t know he liked them that much. Well, when we were finishing up with dinner, the doorbell rang and I opened it, and it was someone in a motorcycle helmet that said “gimmie all your money”. I thought at first it was my roommate Brad and his girlfriend Carmen, but it was Kendra and Beau!!! They were out on their motorcycles for the first time this year so they had to ride a bit to keep the batteries going, so they came to visit us! They stayed an hour or so and we had a really nice time! I love them. And they invited us to a BBQ at their house next week. We talked about me working at Hallmark and they said “ya know, if you’re going to have a second job, you better LOVE it. If you don’t need it and you don’t love it, what the heck is the point? It’s one thing to leave your ‘real’ job and say yippie I get to go to my fun job now, but if you’re not doing that, then quit!” So I think that pretty much summed everything up for me. I’m going to try Saturday (a weekend day) and then make my decision from there! But yeah, so it was a super fun night last night. Hope everyone is having fun in IC!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Tuesday

This weekend was pretty good... Friday Geoff and I opted not to go to the Way and instead work on a secret project which shall be announced in the future when and if the time is right.

Saturday I went to Aqua Fit at the gym with Cindy - what a debacle! The class was hilarious and the instructor was quite interesting. She was a 42 year old mother of 5 who at one point jumped into the pool with her clothes on. Crazy. Anyway, after that I met Katie at Starbucks and then went to Old Navy. Then Geoff and I went to Russell St. BBQ for dinner... it was the best food I've ever had there! After that we met Cindy and her husband and another couple at a place called Amigos II for cocktails. Fun!

Sunday I went to church at Solid Rock again. I was in one of those moods where I did NOT want to go to church... and I was like "well, I'll go and see what happens". I remained in my bad mood throughout the entire time until the very last song... and then it was great. I was glad I went. After that I went to Muchas Gracias and had a breakfast burrito... sooooo good. Then I said hello to Geoff at work. After that I took a nap, packed up for my cake class, and off I went! It lasted about 3 hours but it was soooo fun, I love the new flowers I learned! Then I made a salad, watched a tiny bit of Blood Diamond, and went to bed.

Yesterday I walked the golf course with Geoff, Eric, and Trevor after work, then Geoff and I went to Lloyd Center so he could eat dinner at Steak Escape. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory where Geoff got some cheesecake for dessert and we stopped by his mom's house to say hello. I was SO TIRED because I slept really poorly Sunday night, so I wasn't much fun.

Today I am making chicken salad wraps (I am using wraps instead of bread because we actually have tortillas around the house and I want to use stuff up! - basically I am just using this recipe for the actual chicken salad part) and leek rings for dinner. Even though I love WATCHING the Food Network, I never actually cook anything from it, so this will be a first. As an added bonus, this will use up some celery, onion, leeks, spinach, and lettuce from my veggie bin. To be 100% honest - that was the main reason I remembered these recipes, I was TRYING to come up with something I could do with my veggies. They are definitely accomplishing the goal of making me try new recipes and eat more veggies. YEAH!! :)

I also need to get my hair cut, stop by Target and the grocery store for a few things, color my hair, and make fondant flowers for my class on Sunday. Tomorrow I start work at Hallmark (which will last until 8:30) and Thursday I have a class at the gym and cake class (which lasts until 8) so this is my last full evening to get things done before I leave for Phoenix Friday morning. Lots lots lots to do! It will get done though. And I'm super excited about making my dinner! And work at Hallmark! And cake class. And Arizona!!! YEAH!!! It's gonna be a good rest of the week!!