Wedding things

I'm finally settled on colors.

I have been changing my mind on colors several times in the last month or so. Jim has jokingly asked me what are this weeks colors? :)

I'm finally set on black and aqua with silver as an accent. Since I agreed to not have a pink Barbie wedding the flowers will be pink and white and maybe some yellow gerber daisies.

Melissa and Heidi have helped me find some cute bridesmaid dresses. The dresses will be black with an aqua sash or ribbon.

I ordered some samples of invitations and can't wait for them to come in! They have daisies on them and they look great in the catalog and online but I'll know for sure when I hold them.

Oh, I mailed back a check and the rental agreement for the reception site today. I feel like things are slowly starting to come together.

Date and a Diagnosis

We have a wedding date. It is officially 8/23/08. This date came about because we wanted something in summer and warm weather. Also a date in 2008 that was not too far away but far enough to be able to plan.

Jim thought of 8/23/08 and I thought it sounded good. We were originally looking at 8/30 but that is Labor Day weekend. 8/23 it is.

I heard back from a place about the reception site and it is available! She is sending me the rental agreement and I will just need to send it back with a deposit. Yippee!

As far as diagnosis, I have viral bronchitis. I've got some cough syrup with codeine for nighttime and an inhaler to help me get some air when I get on a roll with coughing. I'm starting to feel better already but it is sure slow going!

Next on the wedding list is to decide on colors and start dress shopping!

Any day now

this cough will end, right?

I had to get chest xrays today and I have a Dr appt tomorrow afternoon to look at said xrays and hopefully find out what is wrong with me.

Oh, and I'm waiting for a couple places to call me back about having our wedding reception at their location. I really want to lock in a date.

Not much else going on.

5 things I really miss

Remember how in my last entry I thought I might be getting sick? I was right. I got that nasty virus going around that leaves you with a horrific cough even you feel 100%.

I have had it for several weeks and I'm now thinking it's just part of me and will never go away.

Because of how often and how hard I cough it's causing me to miss several things.

1. Being able to sleep on my stomach. I am not cut out for sleeping propped up on 2+ pillows for weeks at a time.

2. Singing in the car. Singing leads to coughing which leads to choking and gasping.

3. Speaking a whole sentence without coughing.

4. Eating. My appetite is only about 35% returned

5. Sleeping through the night.

I hope this goes away soon. I just want to sleep on my tummy for a whole night without waking up choking and gasping.

I said yes!

Jim and I got engaged Friday night :) We had planned to do our gift exchange just the 2 of us on Friday after the hockey game.

We were back at his apartment and I was telling him he needed to open his gifts because I was super excited (I got him a leather jacket and a bread machine that he's been wanting) and he said that he wanted to give me my gift first and he proposed!

I said yes (obviously lol)

It took about a day for it to really sink in and I really don't think I've stopped smiling since Friday.

I don't have any pictures yet (he's been sick and I think I'm getting sick) but as soon as I have some pictures I'll update this poor neglected blog.

This may turn into a wedding planning blog before long :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas shopping

I am about 90% done with my Christmas shopping and the UPS man and I are just about on a first name basis. 2 days in a row last week I came home from work and followed him to my door.

I still need to a few more things and get some things mailed off to my family and then I'm done!

The only task I don't look forward to that much is wrapping everything.

Not much going on with me - looking forward to some upcoming vacation!

Real Men of Genius

Have you heard those beer commercials on the radio? I normally flip stations when commercials come on the radio but I always stop for these and I heard a new one tonight about "Mr scoreboard proposal guy" Funny as always.

Not much else going on. Saturday I went to Cedar Point with Jim and his boys in Sandusky, Ohio for the day. I'm not big on roller coasters but I like spinny rides so it was fun :)

The best part? There's a Chick-Fil-A in the park! Had a nice lunch there. We were there from about noon till after 9pm on Saturday and then drove back - long, tiring day but lots of fun!

And so he's not left out - Hi Dad!

Heat

I broke down and turned the heat on this morning.

It was in the 30s outside and I was freezing!

I knew it was cool last night when I dug out a sweatshirt and socks and then when I was petting Abbie and Willow the tips of their ears were cold and Sushi and Sapphire where just kind of hanging mid swim in the tank that I was freezing us out.

I got home tonight and kicked the heat up a bit more so now it's comfortable in here.

Hard to believe I went from running the air to heat in a week!

Mary Janes

I've not had much to blog about lately and I was reminded it's been awhile since I blogged (Hi Mom!)

I don't think I've posted about my love of Crocs lately. My newest pair arrived yesterday!

Red Mary Jane Crocs!

If you like the idea of Crocs but are put off by how large and "ugly" the originals are then I recommend the Mary Janes - they are smaller and daintier and cute!

I got red and I definitely am going to need more colors of these!

I also found these new ones and can't wait for them to be available for purchase - I can wear these at work! Alice suede crocs

More kittens!

I'm really being tested with kittens this week!

I stopped at home tonight after work to change clothes before heading out to meet a friend for dinner. I pulled into a parking spot in front of my building and there was a little kitten sitting on the steps! It was really skittish and ran under the steps when I got close and was watching me. I ran in, changed clothes and came back out with some kitten chow that I put near the spot the kitten was hiding. I couldn't touch it but it was watching me.

As I was in the car getting ready to back out another kitten and the mom come walking out from behind a bush towards the kitten that is hiding. I did a double take because the other kitten was a dead ringer for Nikki, a cat I used to have. Freaky. They were both skittish and looking around and then the mom started to eat the food I put out.

If I had a guess I'd guess these 2 kittens about between 6-7 weeks old. When I got home tonight I saw at least one of the kittens in the spot under the steps watching me, as I got closer it moved away. I went inside, pet my cats, grabbed a little bowl of kitten chow and a bowl of water and took it back outside. I don't know if the mom cat was under there with the kitten(s) but I am sure she was nearby.

I'm hoping that they will not be so scared of me and will let me pet them and hold them because if I can I'll catch them and take them to a no kill shelter where they'll get adopted out. Kittens always adopt out first and I hope I can get the mom cat to trust me, too, becase I will take her in so she can get fixed and adopted as well.

I can't have any more kittens, I can't, I can't, I can't. I'm sure being tested this week!

Kittens, Kittens and more Kittens

Say it with me now, no more kittens.

I love cats and it is very hard to not bring home every one I see. Saturday I went with Jim to a pig roast at one of his cousin's. One of the little girls there came walking across the yard with a teeny tiny kitten in her arms and said there were others. They had a cat that had kittens and there are 4, 4 week old kittens teetering around. Absolutely precious. 2 pure black and 2 tigers that look like Willow.

Afer awhile I snagged one of the tigers that was being carted around and around and around by one of the kids. Little thing settled right now and napped for a bit then got up and teetered off. I later found it being carted around by another kid. Very cute. Later on I was cuddling one of the black kittens and it curled up under my neck and slept for at least 3 hours. Everyone kept telling me that I had to take it home because we had bonded.

It took all the strength I had to say no and put it back. At the end of the night I took two of the kittens back into the barn and tried to hide them out of the way of the kids because they were being manhandled by them. Very good-natured kittens!

If I had a larger apartment or lived in a house I would have taken one. As it was Jim had to tell me no and keep telling me that I can't have any more, 2 are enough for me.

Long weekend

I'm rather sad to see a long 3 day weekend coming to an end. It was a nice break from work and just an all around nice weekend.

Saturday I slept in, was lazy and then Jim and I went to the mall to wander around and window shop, grabbed a quick drive thru dinner and then went to Starbucks for a treat.

Sunday I did some grocery shopping and laundry, just hung around the house.

Today I went to Potter Park Zoo with Jim, his boys and his parents and grandmother. We packed stuff for a picnic lunch and enjoyed that after the zoo. I took a bunch of pictures - hopefully they turn out! It was nice to get outside in the great weather and see his family again.

Tomorrow it's back to work :(

Harry Potter

I'm finally up to book 6!

I've been a late attendee to the Potter craze but am now happily reading the books. I've seen the movies and about 3 weeks ago decided to start reading the books.

I normally don't read magic type genre books but I am really enjoying the series and recommend it to anyone that hasn't read them yet!

I'm hoping to be done with 6 sometime this weekend so I can start the 7th and final book! Not reading the spoilers about the book on Scrapshare is killing me!

Make Way for Ducklings

Do you remember reading the book, Make Way for Ducklings as a child?

In the Boston Public Gardens there is the Ducklings Statue!
















The gardens were great, lots of beautiful plants and flowers and the swan boats (closed when we got there)







and you never know who you'll run into in the gardens!

The Freedom Trail part II

Boston Common
America’s oldest public park, the Boston Common, began as a common grazing ground for sheep and cattle. Eccentric Anglican William Blackstone settled on Beacon Hill with only his books for company in 1622. In 1630, Puritans from Charlestown joined him to share the area’s potable springs, but by 1635 Blackstone bristled at the increased populations and moved to roomy Rhode Island to satisfy his reclusive nature. He returned to Boston on a white bull some years later to propose to his beloved.

Situated on 44 acres of open land, it was used as a common pasture for grazing cattle owned by the townspeople of Boston. The Common later became a "trayning" field for the militia and was used as a British Army camp during the occupation of Boston. The Common’s varied uses also included a place to hang pirates and witches or publicly pillory criminals in “stocks.” It has also served a higher purpose as a place for public oratory and discourse. Reverend Martin Luther King spoke here, Pope John Paul II said Mass here, and Gloria Steinem advanced the feminist revolution on these grounds. These days, visitors to the Common can enjoy a concert, a performance of Shakespeare or the simple, calm respite from the bustle of city life.



In the common is the Tadpole Playground which is a big area for kids that looks really fun! (I've no idea where the rest of my pictures from here went... I'll keep looking for them)








Benjamin Franklin Statue/Boston Latin School
America’s first public school offered instruction to boys, rich or poor free of charge here while girls attended private schools in peoples’ homes. The boys-only tradition finally ended in 1972 when girls were permitted to attend Boston Latin. It is fabled that on April 19, 1775 word of shots fired in Lexington circulated rapidly throughout Boston Town. Boston Latin’s instructor John Lovel was inspired to rise and rhyme “Close your books. Schools done, and war’s begun!”

A striking mosaic marks the spot where the school once stood, and where one if its most famous students Benjamin Franklin attended classes not long before he dropped out of school forever. Boston Latin School is still in operation in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston.







We stopped for a group photo near Ben


Site of the Boston Massacre
On this site, a skirmish between and angry group of colonists and a few terrified British soldiers erupted into the first deadly encounter between Boston colonists and British “red coats.”

The trouble began when a crowd of angry colonists left a local tavern and approached a British sentry standing guard outside the on a chilly March 5th, 1770. They were “a motley rabble of saucy boys,” according to John Adams who had assembled around an argument between a young boy and a soldier. Eyewitness accounts of the event are confusing. The boy was struck with the barrel of a musket by a sentry, and the crowd became a mob. They threw sticks, ice snowballs and rocks at the young British guards, and finally a wooden club that knocked one of the sentries to the ground.

It might have been their jeering taunt “fire, fire, why don’t you fire? You dare not fire?” that caused the confusion, or the panic of the young British soldiers who were outnumbered and under attack, but fire they did and within seconds 11 were wounded or dying.

Samuel Adams and Paul Revere seized upon the tragedy to spark a flame of anger among the colonists by representing the skirmish as a massacre. The British soldiers were tried for murder. John Adams, a Boston lawyer and ardent patriot defended them in spite of his contemporaries’ assertion that the event was a “horrible and bloody massacre.” He was as loyal to the ideal of justice as he was to the patriot cause.

I don't have any pictures from here, but I did see it. There is a tiny plaque in the area where this took place.

The Old North Church
Immortalized in Longfellow’s poem Paul Revere’s Ride, the Old North is the oldest church building in Boston and the city’s most visited historic site. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the Old North sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and to seize the Colonial store of ammunition. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.

If I recall correctly this was in the North End, I remember seeing it but it was dark when we were in the North End so I don't have a picture. It just means I need to come back because you can take tours in many of these buildings!