Bridal Shower Lunch

My lovely co-workers threw a wonderful Bridal Shower for me last week. All of the women in the office came and we ate a yummy lunch of pimento cheese and cucumber sandwiches, meatballs, potato salad and chips and dip. The cake was so cute. I love these ladies! I'm going to miss them when I move in a couple of months!

This is really the second Bridal Shower I've had. I'll post about that one when I get pictures next week.

Wedding to-do at 46 days!

This is the raw, un-censored version of my to-do list. Thought you might like a peak into my life right now. I'm not feeling too stressed. I feel like everything is starting to come together.

Wedding:

• Make and print ceremony programs
• Finish games for reception tables
• wrap presents (for parents, attendants, etc.)
• Make signs for guest book, lawn games, etc.
• Buy gift cards for people giving us their time
• Make bunting and banner
• go to 2nd and 3rd dress fittings
• buy more ribbon
• buy more fabric
• buy fishing line
• get ring plated and cleaned
• buy heel inserts for wedding day shoes
• decide on wedding day hairstyle and practice creating it
• E-mail wedding day details to everyone involved with the wedding
• Make sure wedding day binder is ready for day-of-coordinator
• Create diagrams and descriptions of decor for day of decorating (that I won't be allowed to help with)
• Download sheet music for ceremony and give it to our ceremony musician
• Give Brody a close haircut so it has time to fluff up a bit before the wedding
• Get a facial ? maybe?
• Whiten my teeth
• Work on pre-marital counseling homework

Moving and other stuff:

• Pack (enough said)
• cancel gym membership
• cancel rental insurance
• get copies of medical records from Endocrinologist
• get new glasses
• go to the dentist
• sell some furniture on Craigslist (bed, tv cabinet, etc)

Week of the wedding:

• Get marriage license
• Pack for the honeymoon
• Pay the photographer
• Pay the florist
• Decorate the tent
• Decorate for the ceremony
• Finalize our reception music
• Steam rehearsal dinner dress
• Give honeymoon itinerary to parents
• Make sure Brody is all taken care of
• Put together flower arrangements and boutonnieres
• Get nails done

Bi-Weekly Haircut

Broadster gets a haircut about every other week. When he gets shaggy people start to complain, saying he doesn't look happy. Plus Brody starts to itch and scratch and get stinky. One time I thought we'd try to grow his hair long like a show dog. My mom thought longer hair would keep him warm at night.

A Lhasa strutting his stuff.

 But this is the farthest we got:

Do I look happy to you?

Brody didn't like it. at all. He was constantly rubbing his eyes, licking his legs (eww), and scratching and scratching.  Plus his face got dirty and his tail got matted. The mats were painful for him when I brushed him (even after brushing just the day before). Let me tell you, this dog likes to run and play--he doesn't sit still enough to preserve a pretty hair-do.

So we take an hour every couple of weeks to get a hair cut. I use hair cutting scissors to trim his face, between his footpads, his legs, and his ears. I use clippers to even out the hair on his whole body. These are the clippers we have:

I think I paid $25 for them at PetSmart. Here they are online.

Brody loves the clippers. I think it must feel like a massage to him, because he cuddles right up close and almost falls asleep as I go. I need to buy some that are better quality in the future. If I only used these once in a while they would be great, but they're getting tired. I've had them for two years though, so as far as an investment goes, they're not bad.

It's amazing, I can go through the whole routine of Brody's haircut and he lets me do whatever I need to do. But when it comes to trimming his nails, it's all out toddler hissy fit time. I mean, crying and yelping, body thrashing, nipping at my hands... We used to fight for 10 minutes or more and he would finally give up and let me do it. I recently bought a PediPaws, and things have improved some- but Brody still throws a fit every now and then.

find here on Amazon

Brody's Summer Vacation

This month it worked out that Brody could go and stay with my parents. I'm not sure if he's going to want to come back, they're spoiling him I'm sure. Plus he gets to go cool places and run around in their big back yard. Here he is at the lake at sunset with Mom.

Thanks for the picture Dad!

Missing my friends

being a fan of new things, it's still sometimes hard for me to adjust to moving away. I've been so happy the last 5 years in Nashville. Some big milestones have happened here: my first apartment, first full-time job, relationships, breakups, Thyroid Disease, Addison's Disease, engagement... This is a place where I have a great church community, a work family, and sweet, sweet friends. My friends are what I'm going to miss the most. I might miss the city in other ways, but my best girlfriends are what my heart is already missing.

 

I've struggled over the years with figuring out my place among friends and how to keep friendships going after college life. Nashville is where I've learned that true friendship takes work, caring and that ups and downs are natural. Especially living away from family, friendships are so important. In the last 5 years, I've formed friendships with amazing people who speak the same heart-language as I do. They are the kind of people who lift me up and take care of me, the ones who notice when they haven't heard from me in awhile.
Now my Nashville friends are becoming like other friends I live away from and keeping in touch is now going to be weekend visits, phone calls and skype dates. It makes me feel sad.

Changes are a coming!

Ok, so you all know I'm getting married... right? Well here's some new news:  BL got a job in North Carolina!!!

map from here

BL's new position starts soon, and he'll be moving right away. Then after the wedding in October I'll join him there. I've been telling Brody, "We're moving to North Carolina! Are you excited?" haha, he twists his head and seems confused every time, but I think he's going to love it there.
Wedding planning is getting more interesting with BL being further away, but I think we'll manage it all. With family and friends to help- everything will get done. Moving my furniture there will also be tricky, but I guess it's all just part of it. My mom and cousin were in Nashville this weekend for my first Bridal Shower, and they helped me sort through things in my apartment. I gave them a lot, and mom boxed up a bunch of things to take to Goodwill.

Here are some of the things on my wedding to-do list for the week:

• call the Pastor to talk about the order of the ceremony
• figure out ceremony music
• order jewelry for wedding day
• find another swimsuit for the honeymoon
• Print mailing labels and return address labels
• Stick the labels on invites
• Mail the invites
• Work on homework for pre-marital counseling

Here's what else is on my to-do list this week:

• eat healthy
• work-out
• sleep a lot

What I wore for engagement photos

I had a really hard time deciding what to wear for our pictures a couple of weeks ago. While I've been slowly losing weight, I'm still not comfortable with how I look in clothes. It was tough trying to decide what would flatter and fit the best.
The day we took pictures was a hot one- over 100 degrees! so that made some of the choice for us. No jeans or long pants for BL. I did wear jeans AND cardigans.  I felt a little crazy sweating in my outfits, but it was worth it. As Stacy and Clinton say, cardigans and jackets are the best at hiding... well, things you don't want to show.

Engagement photo outfit #1 by simplysuz featuring printed tops

Printed top
target.com

Women's
kmart.com

Engagement photo outfit #2 by simplysuz featuring a teal cardigan

Faded Glory Womens Woven Peasant Dress
walmart.com

Engagement Photos

We chose Ginger Snaps for our wedding photographer, a company based in Lexington, KY.  A couple of weeks ago we got the chance to take our engagement photos with Krystal. She was so fun to work with, and I'm so excited for the wedding photos!

Here are some of my favorites:

 

Wedding Shoes!

This is my latest choice for wedding shoes. I found them at Zappos outlet for $30. Not bad, considering they are over $60 online. I'm not saying for sure if I'll wear these or not, I still have time to change my mind. But... they are the perfect color blue, and they're not too tall.

Shoes continued...

Lately I'm not sure what to share. Wedding planning isn't fun right now. My health is not cooperating. And I'm anxious again. Sob, sob, sob. haha. The reality is that life is just busy. I'm missing out on reading all of my favorite blogs, and my own blog is being sadly neglected.

It turns out my blood work shows that I'm quite hypothyroid right now. Who knew? I didn't, that's for sure. The only new symptoms I've had are crying (all the time, when I don't know why), and a little dizziness. I haven't noticed any increased tiredness, weight gain, or any of the other typical hypo symptoms I remember. So I was really surprised. I've been taking the generic of synthroid and my doctor reccomends the brand name drug. Does anyone know if that makes a difference? I've been buying the generic because it's less than 1/3 the cost of brand name, but the brand name might be worth the price if it works better.

I'm up to 150 mcg of Synthroid. I take it at 5 am, 45 minutes before my HC and on an empty stomach. The doctor said it seemed like I wasn't even taking it. Weird...

Hm, let's see what else is going on... I'm doing weight watchers again. I haven't gained or lost a pound in several months. I've started working out a little more. Not much, but a little.

In the world of weddings, I'm still looking for wedding shoes. I tried my dress on with my shoes and they're not right. I don't know how to explain it, but they don't feel right. Remember this?

Well I think I'm actually looking for something more like these:

from: http://www.buttershoes.com/

from Amazon.com

from Amazon.com Nina Culver

from Amazon.com Nina Brynn

I know, I know, they're all different and not all are blue... I'm just not sure what I want. And if there is one part of this wedding that seems important lately it's my shoes and jewelry. They are two aspects of this wedding that I can control, and can choose all on my own. I'm not feeling pressure to get them picked out immediately, but I do feel a bit anxious to decide for myself.