Lovely Quote on Love, Marriage

Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

- Louis de Bernieres

 

I would say our roots are definitely entwined.

Ahh technology

Josh's alarm clock finally bit the dust last week (actually, just the snooze button stopped working from being pressed repeatedly most mornings), so Josh got a new alarm clock. It's modern and compact and as I gazed over at my old super clunky massive CD alarm clock, I became jealous and coveted his new fancy clock. Being the sweetie that he is, he brought me home an equally awesome clock that is compact, modern, round, and talks! I've discovered one flaw, however. The husky female voice has a thing against hearing anything above a tenor. My soprano voice - oh no, unacceptable. Case in point:

Me: Set alarm
Silence
Me: Set alarm
Clock: What would you like the alarm to sound like?
Me: Buzzer
Clock: Could you repeat that?
Me: BUZZER
Clock: What time would you like to set the alarm?
Me: 5:45 a.m.
Silence
Me: 5:45 a.m.
Clock: Alarm is set to 9:45 a.m.
Me: Sigh.

She practically fawns all over Josh when he talks to her, though. No repeats necessary.

Also, we've discovered that you must talk directly into the microphone on the new clock. We were laying in bed, the alarm went off, and both of us tried yelling "Snooze" several times before I finally leaned my head directly in front of her and told her to shut it. Now, I just speak in a lower and slower voice and all is well, unless Josh starts laughing at me and then I have to start all over. Thankfully, the clock also has buttons, but the creators of the clock decided to make setting it as difficult as possible unless you use voice commands, so there you go. Hooray modern technology!

This was so needed!

I absolutely needed this laugh today, and completely forgot about this site until MSN featured it today.

Awkward Family Photos

Update!!

Update!! Apparently there is a lot of interest in the place we want, but they came back with a counter-offer and are pretty much holding the place for us until we accept or not (and we ARE) so we should be homeowners soon if everything else goes as smoothly!!!

Another busy few days have passed, and we could have potentially big news in the works. We've talked a lot about moving back to Colorado and we've weighed the pros and cons about moving right now, and depending on what happens in the next few weeks, we may be staying in Minnesota for a bit longer. Moving to Colorado won't be cheap, and then we have to worry about jobs. I admit we're both worried we could end up in the same situation we were in when we got to Minnesota. We didn't get jobs right away and go behind on bills and maxed out our credit cards... not a good situation. If we stay in Minnesota a while longer, we could potentially save up some more money. We're more established here, so hopefully keeping (in Josh's case finding) permanent work won't be as difficult. We also in the past 5 days were looking at houses and we found a great place well within our price range of purchasing. It's a new construction townhome out in the country in a smaller subdivision that probably won't expand too much for a few years - we'd actually be the first ones to move into the subdivision, I believe, and it's bright and peaceful and perfect for a starter-home. It seemed like too good of a deal to pass up on, so as of last night, we've made an offer and now we just wait and see. If it's meant to be, they'll accept, and if they don't, we'll think on it a bit more. Our one concern could potentially be the HOA - neither of us are fond of them, and we're waiting to get their rules and regulations to look over to make sure we're okay with them. We'd love a house, and we've seen a few in our price range - and they're fixer-uppers, which we're okay with, but a lot of them just need so much work, and this place - we wouldn't even have to change the paint colors because we actually like them.

So, there's that. 

Wedding planning continues and tomorrow we'll be talking cake!  Our inspiration:

Seen here

Finally saw the barn!

We've been so busy lately, and I imagine it will only get worse as we get closer to July. We did, however, finally get out to the barn, and we're both really happy with our choice. Josh was uncertain at first when he heard the word "barn," but he likes it as much as I do. I have one concern, though. When we arrived, the parking lot was full, and it's not a very big parking lot. The reason, we quickly discovered, is because there is a baseball field right nearby, which I had no idea shared a parking lot with the barn, and was literally right across the path. So, while we were looking around and opening up the barn, very curious people just started wandering in and around. I'm crossing my fingers that no ball games will be happening the day of our wedding, but if it does happen, I guess we need to be prepared. First off, I'm going to make signs to put everywhere saying that the area has been reserved for our wedding and hopefully people will respect that. As for parking - I don't think we can reserve the lot, unfortunately, so finding enough spots for everyone could be tricky. At least we'll be there that morning to set up and maybe we can ask people to park somewhere else, but whether they'll cooperate or not... who knows. At least we're finding out now rather than later that it could be a potential issue.

Backpacking Kitty

This is just too cool.  A French couple who are backpacking around the world found a kitten in Louisiana who then joined them! 

Backpacking Kitty

Less than 3 months...

Boy I've gotten bad about updating... and taking pictures, and doing a lot of things. :p My dress is has begun the process of alteration, however! After a semi-stressful, long drive through traffic into the city (sort of) I arrived and with pins flashing, Louise managed to put my mind completely at ease. I feel like such a princess and I'm so excited to have it finished. You see, I was worried when the dress first arrived. For starters, I couldn't tie the back myself, so I couldn't get a clear picture of the fit, and then there was the bust. Perhaps my measurements were misread?  All I know was there was too much padding and my small figure did NOT fill it out so it looked like I had attempted to stuff a box of lumpy tissues down the front. Getting rid of a an inch or two of fabric and the padding should fix things, though, so I'm excited! I go back for another fitting in May and then the actual sewing begins.

As for other things - the paper for the invitations is here so we'll have to start on that soon! I may have also figured out what I want to do for centerpieces, but I have to run the idea by Josh first to see what he thinks and crunch a few numbers. I thought of the perfect way to tie in the oriental elements with the lighting elements I also wanted to use! Flowers are pretty much decided on as well for the most part and I'm actually relieved that part is being taken care of by someone else. :p At first I didn't want to "delegate" at all, but now that's one huge thing to not have to worry about and Kim and Mike know so much more about flowers than I do.

Check!

Gown Alteration Appointment - Check
Invitation Paper Samples Ordered - Check
Order Official Document for Officiant - Check

You know, the only thing on my mind lately has been weddings. I even dream about weddings - some very bizarre dreams at that. In one dream I was insisting on wearing a poodle skirt (sans poodle at the very least) with matching shoes and my mom would not hear of it and we were arguing over this horrible wedding ensemble, which I would never wear anyway, but it was the principle of the matter, darn it! It's my wedding and I'm doing what I want and if that means wearing a poodle skirt rather than a dress, so be it. :p
I did, however, only now think about one very important thing. I might die of heat in my dress. I wasn't exactly thinking outside wedding when I was choosing my dress and I have no idea if our venue is air-conditioned or not. One can only hope, otherwise we're going to need to bring fans, I think. I'll only get to dress up like this once, though, so I want to do it up and hopefully with enough clinical strength antipersperent and expensive makeup - I'll hold up. ;)

Hooray, the next set of Penguin Classics is out including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!  I'm considering purchasing them as a wedding expense and using them as part of the decor... our theme is pretty random as it is. :p