Oh so many happenings... :)

 Okay, so I have not posted updates in a whiiiile.  Here goes:

Life: Has been pretty good.  I’ve been sick for the past week or so, but other than that I’ve been fine.  Today my camera came in the mail!!!!!! That’s pretty exciting. I can’t play with it yet since it is a graduation present, but I’m still very excited.  I ordered it on Black Friday because Canon had a good deal going on.  Can’t wait to start taking pictures!  Speaking of graduation, Kyle's parents got him a 60" television.  It's huge! A little over a month ago I started reading Les Miserables, but I haven’t had a chance to really get through it.  I’m only on page 80 or so of over 900.  Hopefully once school is over I’ll have more time to do that.  I would really like to finish it before the movie comes out.  I might have time to read some at my temporary job this weekend.  It’s a caregiver/companion job where I hang out with this guy and help him out when needed.  I’m nervous but excited.  Plus, the hours are good so I’ll be getting extra money right before the holidays.  The remodel on the house is coming along.  The kitchen should be finished today.  The whole house has been painted (inside and out), the deck is finished, the family room wine bar area is all done, our living room fireplace is done, and the new structure out by our pool is coming along nicely.

Oh!!!!!!! I cannot believe I didn’t start with this!!! Kyle and I got an apartment!!!!!!!!!! We move in in two weeks!! I am so so so so so excited!!!!! We also got a couch, an ottoman, and a rug for the apartment.  I will try my best to get lots of before and after pictures.  We have to move in and unpack really quickly so that I can decorate for Christmas.

So school is going really well, a bit busy and crazy, but well none-the-less.  I’m pulling in solid A’s in all of my classes right now, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to maintain that for the next 2 weeks.  I’m all set for graduation.  I met with a counselor this past Tuesday and he said I’m good with all of my classes and units to finish in two weeks.  I’ll still walk in the spring though. 

Wedding: Okay! So since I last posted I’ve done a couple different things.  I went to the Bridal Bazaar with my sister and mom and it was….interesting?  I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it wasn’t horrible.  There were just a lot of pushy vendors and since I’m not actually getting married here, I couldn’t use any of them.  We went to get ideas for decoration and what not, but there wasn’t much of that.  The fashion show was fun though.  Lots of pretty dresses.  And the male models for menswear were very nice to look at. ;) We took my rings in to get cleaned a little while back and I got to see my wedding band again.  It's just as pretty as I remember. :) Two weeks ago Kyle and I went to a travel seminar put on by AAA and Trafalgar and ended up meeting with a AAA agent to book our honeymoon! We put down the deposit and the rest is due in March.  We’re going to Canada and I could not be more excited! We fly into Calgary, then head up to Jasper, then to Banff, then Kamloops, and finally we end the trip in Vancouver. Along the way we get to explore a glacier, visit a couple national parks, go on a hike up a mountain and along a lake, and take a train through the Canadian Rockies.  I cannot wait to take amazing pictures with my new camera on this amazing trip!!!  So, the day after this, Kyle and I took our engagement pictures up in Julian and the day could not have been more perfect!  We had so much fun and my wonderful friend Kathryn took the pictures. Okay, so then last weekend I went dress shopping with my mom and sister!! I had so much fun!! I tried on probably 8 dresses, maybe more? I fell in love with one, but we agreed that it was a bit too early to order the dress so we made an appointment to go back in January. I’m also having Kyle’s mom and sister come with us so they can see the dress. I felt so beautiful in it and it really felt like it was me. 

Weight: So I joined Weight Watchers again.  This time Liz is doing it with me, so I’m hopeful that I’ll reach my goal weight this time.  15.6 pounds to go! Wish me luck!

The Ginormous 60" TV Kyle got as a graduation present!

Celebrating booking our honeymoon with Dippin' Dots!

My gorgeous wedding band that I love so much. :)

On our way to take the engagement pictures.

In Julian.

So, as you can see, I’ve been quite busy and haven’t had much time to post updates.  It’s possible I forgot something (I had to go back and add a bit to this because I kept remembering things) so if I remember I’ll make sure to update.  I also probably won’t be posting another update for 3 weeks or so because of the move and school finishing up.  I’ll try my best to post something before the New Year though. 

Best news ever!!!

Life: Okay, so this week I decided I just needed to suck it up and take my car in to get the air conditioner fixed.  I called my dad and left a message asking him where I should take my car.  He texted back saying we'd talk about it when I got home later.  So later that evening when we were taking our dogs out my dad asked me what exactly I need to fix in my car.  So I told him and then he replied with this, "Well, as you know we got your sister a car for graduation.  We've also put some money into your car.  Here's my idea, you can either trade in your car and we'll give you $8,000 toward a new one, or you can keep your car and we'll give you $8,000.  Well.... I chose the second option.  I'm using some of the money to get my car all fixed up and then I get to do whatever I want with the rest!  While most of it will go into savings, I'm using about $2,000 to buy myself a Canon Rebel T3i along with a standard zoom lens and a macro lens.  I'm soooooo excited!!!!! I've wanted this camera for about a year now and I've wanted a nice camera for as long as I've been taking pictures!  I cannot wait until December when I get the rest of the money and I can buy the camera!  I'm so incredibly grateful to my parents. :) I love them so much! Ahhh!!! I'm just so excited!

How gorgeous is this camera?!!

Okay, so as far as school goes: I just checked my grade for the first history test and I got an A! :)  So for the first round of tests I got 3 A's and a B.  I'm quite pleased about this.  I wrote a paper today and turned in a paper on Thursday so when I get the grades for those I'll post them. 

Friday, I got to hang out with Kyle for a bit and then met up with a group of friends for some delicious Chinese food.

Yesterday, my mom decided that we had not spend enough time together lately, and took me on a lunch date. :) It was wonderful.  We went to Red Robin and chatted about life.  We also finally got to talk about the wedding and that was so much fun.  The only downside to yesterday, was that it was day one of a cold...I felt awful toward the end of the day and today I don't feel much better... Hopefully this will be a short-lived cold because I have a lot to do this week!

Wedding:  So, this past week my mom surprised me with tickets for myself, herself, and my sister to go to the Bridal Bazaar on October 28th! :) I'm so excited for that!  Hopefully we'll get lots of great ideas as well as the names of a bunch of bridal stores in the area.  Oh! And my mom also gave me the song that she would like played at the wedding. :)  I'm really happy that things are finally starting to happen.

Weight: Okay, I was doing really well this week until Friday night/Saturday when I started to get sick.  I was in no condition to go on my walk yesterday and also, did not feel like eating a bunch of healthy foods.  I didn't gain much, and what I did gain I am going to blame on the pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream I ate last night because that was the only thing that made my throat feel better... :) 

I did get a chance to go on two 5 mile walks this week though, so that was good.  And up until Friday I was doing really well as far as healthy eating went.

Starting weight: 144.4 lbs

October 7th, 2012: 143.9 lbs (+0.3 lbs from last week)

I think I shall spend the rest of the day on Pinterest getting wedding ideas, while snuggled up in bed trying to recover from this cold...

Teeny tiny pity party...which isn't so teeny tiny

Life: So school is school.  My classes are not interesting at all and I'm just counting the days until I'm done.  I got one of my tests back from the last week and I got an 86%.  I'm happy with that considering I did not know what to focus on while I was studying and thought I failed the test!  I get my Developmental Pscyh test back on Tuesday and then sometime next week or the week after get my essay exam back for History of Ideas. 

So this week I've really been missing Colorado.  I want to move back there so much.  I'm considering talking to Kyle about moving right after I'm done with school, but I don't know if either of us is ready for that.  I'd be really sad to leave all of my friends and family behind, but I just can't stay here anymore.  California never felt like my home, just a place I was staying until I could get back to Colorado.  I miss fall and the changing leaves, the crisp air, snow, spring when all the flowers would come out again, and summers that aren't 100 degrees.  

The remodel will be officially moving indoors this week, so that should be interesting.  We'll have to find places to move the furniture and I might be spending a few nights at Kyle's while my room gets worked on.  I'm most excited about the kitchen.  I can't wait to see what the finished product will look like. :)

Oh, on Friday Kyle and I had a date night. :)  We went to Black Angus (which was sooooo good!) and then to the movies to see Looper.  It was a little too violent for me.  I couldn't watch a bunch of the scenes.  Overall, though it was a nice evening, especially since I hadn't seen Kyle since the previous Friday.

Excited for a delicious dinner at Black Angus!

Meet Ricky Rico, the adorable frog Katrina rescued and then we released back into the wild!

Wedding: Okay, so I know that I am always going to be the one who is most excited about the wedding, but I wish my family would at least sometimes acknowledge that they're aware I'm getting married.  I know life is crazy for my parents right now with the remodel and that has their focus, but I would really love to start doing wedding related things.  For instance, I want to go wedding dress shopping so very badly!!  I see so many beautiful gowns and I just want to see what they would look like on me so I can figure out the exact style I'm looking for.  I also really want my family and Kyle's family to meet, but that seems to be impossible to arrange.  They never seem to be available at the same time.  It's so frustrating.  ..... I just keep waiting for things to feel real.  With nothing happening it still just feels like before when Kyle and I were dating and would talk about our wedding day.  I also really wish my parents would actually tell me what my budget is.  Saying, "find out what things cost and we'll figure it out" is NOT helpful!! I can't work with that.  I really, really appreciate that they are paying for the wedding, but it's almost more frustrating because I can't make any decisions since they're never available/want to talk about the wedding.  Each day, I'm more and more inclined to just take a weekend trip with Kyle somewhere and get married.  I just wish my family was more excited about this..... Okay, end rant.

Weight:
I lost again this week!! I'm so excited!  Went on two more 5 mile walks and they both felt so good!  Tomorrow, Katrina and I are going to a Zumba class and then I plan on going on three walks this week.  Hopefully that will result in more weight lost!  I calculated it out and if I lose a pound a week I'll reach my weight goal by my goal date.  (130 lbs by January 1st, 2013).  If not though, I won't be heartbroken.  A pound a week is kind of a tall order.  As long as I'm my goal weight by my final dress fitting, I'll be good. (Of course, at this rate, that won't be until like a month before the wedding)  Oh! I also lost a little in inches, so that's good. :)  So here are the stats for this week:

Starting weight: 144.4 lbs

September 30th, 2012: 143.6 lbs (-0.4 lbs from last week)

waist: 26.25 in (-0.25 in from last month)
thigh: 23.50 in (+0.25 in)
bicep: 11.00 in (-0.25 in)
hips: 35.00 in (-0.75 in)
chest: 34.00 in (-0.25 in)

Success! in school and weight loss

Life:
School is getting crazy!! So happy that it's close to being over. I did get an A on my first paper and test this semester.  I'll let you know what I got on the test I took on Sunday and the test today when I get the scores.  And the test I'm taking tomorrow.

Oh, we're doing a remodel at our house and everything is crazy!  We redid our deck attached to our house, are going to redo the deck by our pool, our kitchen, and our family room (adding a wet bar and wine fridge).  We are also painting the whole house, inside and out, adding wood floors and tile where we currently have carpet, and replacing all the windows and sliding glass doors...

Wedding:
This past friday marked 1 year until the wedding!  It's exciting, but before this point I kept saying "I have over a year to do ____" Not anymore!  It's slightly stressful.  There are moments when I just feel like eloping and forgoing the craziness of planning a wedding.  I'm sure my parents would be happy about that. ; )

So aside from picking colors, a date, and location, I haven't done any planning.  Because of the remodel at our house, my parents are so preoccupied that I feel bad bringing up the wedding (yet another expense they'd have to think about).  Hopefully I'll be able to get some planning done soon...

Weight:
Yay! Lost that pesky weight that I gained the other week!  I finally started exercising that it felt really good!  One of my good friends Katrina got me going on walks again! I've gone on two 5 mile walks so far and I'm hoping to make it a tri-weekly thing.  I'm thinking Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  With Zumba classes on Mondays.  Sadly, I'm out of commission for the rest of this week because I have a blister on my foot, but as soon as that is healed I will be back out there!  So, so happy to have my motivation back!

Starting weight: 144.4 lbs
September 23rd, 2012: 144.0 lbs (-2.3 lbs from last week!)

1 year from today...

In exactly 1 year Kyle and I will be getting married!!!! I cannot wait to call him "husband." : )

I love him so much.

Nothing much

Life:

So school all of a sudden got crazy! I had a paper due this past Sunday (which I got an A on!), I had a test today, I have an online test on Sunday, a test on Monday, and a test on Tuesday.  And I’m sure I have another paper due soon that I’m forgetting about.  So glad it is my last semester!

Kyle and I have been apartment hunting lately, but haven’t fallen in love with any place yet.  Not to mention that housing is so expensive here!  Just one more reason I want to move!

Wedding:

Not much has happened.  I think next week some time we are going to meet with a travel agent to discuss options for our honeymoon.  Otherwise, nothing new.  Wedding decisions have been put on the back burner for a bit while I’m in school.  Although, one thing I want to start doing soon is looking for a dress.

Weight:

Okay, so I don’t know what happened the other week, but that 3 pounds I gained hasn’t gone away.  I don’t know what I did differently, but I’m not happy about it.

Start weight: 144.4 lbs
September 16, 2012: 146.3 lbs (-0.2 lbs) <I think I’ll keep that feature around, adding how much I’ve gained or loss during the week, not just what I weight.

I was trying to find a fun picture to add to this post and stumbled across this one. I really miss my short, red hair!!!

A little blue...

Life: So I can’t quite seem to motivate myself this semester…I blame this on it being my final semester.  I started the semester on a strong note, I read required readings before class, but now I would rather sit and watch tv or search for wedding stuff online when I come home.  I’m tired and the last thing I want to do is use my brain. ;) 

This past Friday was my sister’s 23^rd birthday and it was fun.  I spent the day with her and my mom.  We went for coffee in the morning (I got a smoothie since I don’t like coffee), did some browsing in town, made cupcakes, went out to lunch, went shopping, decorated the cupcakes, then went out to dinner.  All around a very nice day.  The next day a friend of Kyle’s threw a surprise party for her husband at Kyle’s house and that was fun, though exhausting.  Sunday I pretty much just relaxed and it was wonderful!

Lately I’ve been kind of bummed.  I’ve slowly been realizing that I don’t have friends I can relate to.  It seems like I’m at a stage in my life that others have already gone through or haven’t gotten to yet.  Right now, all of my friends are either married and starting families or are in serious relationships that haven’t quite reached the marriage stage yet.  I wish I had friends who were in this transition stage from relationship to marriage.  I’m so excited about planning my wedding, but don’t really have anyone to talk to about it.  I feel like those who aren’t engaged don’t really want to talk about it and those who are married look at me like, oh, that’s cute, I’m already well past that.  I feel like everyone I know has some close friend they can confide in and who is at the same stage in life, and I don’t and sometimes it’s frustrating.  Sometimes I just want to go back to high school when all of my friends were here and we were all going through the same things.  ……… But that’s just me feeling sorry for myself.  Also, I just realized I have no followers on this blog...sad day.

Wedding:  Okay, so now for the uplifting part.  :) Kyle and I are going to take our engagement pictures up in Julian and I’m so excited!! My friend Kathryn will be taking the pictures and I’m looking forward to what she’ll do.  I’m hoping to take them in an apple orchard, but only if I can find one that will let us use the orchard for free.  If we can’t do that, I’m thinking just some fun pictures throughout town as well as some more on the outskirts near some wooded area or something.  We’ll be taking them in October/November, whenever it starts to get cold and the leaves start to change.  I want to bundle up for these pictures. :)  For now, I need to start looking for something cute to wear!

Weight:  This past week was not so kind to me and one of the reasons I didn’t post this on Sunday.  I’ve been avoiding documenting my weight.  I gained 3 pounds this week!  It was so disheartening when I stepped on the scale and saw that…  Now it really shouldn’t have been because I hadn’t done anything to lose weight, but I also didn’t think I did anything unusual to make me gain that weight.  Oh well, I guess this week is a new week.  Though, I don’t think I’m doing well this week either.  I cannot motivate myself to workout.  It has been so hot lately and I completely shut down when it’s hot.  I can’t function.  I hate the hot weather.  If it never got above 70 degrees again I would be a happy camper.  I love the cold.  I thrive in the cold….. Anyway, the moral of this is that I need to put in more effort to lose this weight so I can feel good about myself for my wedding and after.  Here’s to hoping I find the motivation!

Start weight: 144.4 lbs
September 9^th, 2012: 146.5 lbs :(

Colors

Okay, so I'm thinking that I'm going to give some order to my posts.  I've decided I'll have a Life section, a Wedding section, and a Weight section in each to make things easier.  So here we go:

Life:
This past week was my first week of my last semester of school.  It still hasn't really hit me yet that in a few months I'll be done.  I'll let you know what my emotions are when it does finally hit.  As far as the classes go, we really didn't do much this week and what we did go over was basically review.  I hope that things will start to get interesting this week, because I got distracted quite a bit and almost fell asleep.  On the positive side, none of my assignments seem too difficult and I think the longest paper I have to write is around 7 pages, but it's broken up into almost mini papers of 1-2 pages each.  All of my tests will be multiple choice, with the exception of one final that will also include some short answer, so hopefully those won't be too bad.  This Friday, a good friend came home from deployment so Kyle and I drove down to San Diego Thursday night so we wouldn't have to wake up super early on Friday.  We went out to dinner with another friend Thursday and had a lot of fun.  Friday morning we woke up at 6, got ready, and met our friends at 6:45.  We then headed over to base and set up our welcoming area. :)  We relaxed and caught up for about 2 hours and then the ship finally came in.  It was great to see our friend and for the rest of the day we all hung out and had a wonderful time.  We went out for sushi that night and it was super delicious!  It's funny, when Kyle and I first started dating I thought the idea of sushi was disgusting but he has slowly instilled a love of it in me. :)  For Labor Day I don't really have any plans, but will probably read for school and relax.

Wedding:
So despite my previous post of finally setting a date, we ended up moving it a week later due to scheduling issues.  So we are now getting married at the end of September 2013 and I'm really excited about it.  It'll be a fall wedding and since fall is my favorite time of year it works out really well.  I'm hoping that because the wedding will be in upstate New York, the leaves will be changing and will provide really pretty pictures.  Also, because it's now a fall wedding we've changed the colors to cranberry, red, latte, and white (think apple orchard).

This was the inspiration

I'm really excited to pick out the decorations with this new color scheme. :) And I LOVE the idea of red shoes!  Perhaps a two inch wedge?

Weight:
Okay, so I didn't do anything to lose weight this week, but luckily didn't gain anything.  I really hope that I will work exercise into my schedule to tone up.  Maybe this week?

Start weight: 144.4 lbs
September 2nd, 2012: 143.6 lbs

Last, First Day

So tomorrow is my last, first day of school... I can't believe that after 19 years of school, of tests, of homework, of summer and winter vacations, that it's all coming to an end.  I'm really excited, but nervous too.  I registered for graduation the other day and that was awesome.  I also got my grades for my two summer classes annnndddd.............both A's!!!!!!!! I've taken 14 classes at Cal State and I've gotten 12 A's and 2 A-'s.  I really hope I can end my college career with an additional 4 A's. 

This weekend Kyle and I started looking at apartments and that was fun.  We fell in love with a place that is just outside of our current budget, but will work once I'm done with school and have a job with more hours.  So I think the plan for now is to wait until then to move in together.

And now for the weekly weigh in:

August 26th: 143.7 lbs!!
Waist: 26.5 inches
Thighs: 23.25 inches
Bicep: 11.25 inches
Hips: 35.75 inches
Chest: 34.25 inches

I was really pleased to see that I lost this week.  And I didn't only lose pounds, I also lost inches!  I ate much better than I normally do and felt better.  Hopefully I can keep this up! 

The Date!

We finally set a date!!!!  And.........we bumped it up a year!  Instead of June 2014 it will be September 2013!  I'm so excited!  I can't wait to start the planning.  I will definitely be busy with school, planning this wedding, and finding a place to live, but I'm looking forward to the craziness of it all.  It's the beginning of a new chapter of my life and that is so exciting.  I had a long talk with my mom this morning about the wedding and all of the planning.  I definitely have a lot to think about and consider.  We also came up with a sketch of my dream dress.  I hope I can find something similar or that having it custom made isn't too expensive.

Okay so other happenings:

I finished up classes on the 10th of August so this past week I've just been working and relaxing and it has been wonderful!  I'm sad that I only have one week left of summer and then I start classes again...  But on the plus side, this is my last semester of college!!!  Yay!

As far as weight loss goes...it's not going so well.  But, I haven't done anything to make it go well.  The first week I was so stressed about school that I didn't eat well and didn't exercise.  The second week was this past week and I just vegged because it's been so hot here.  Hopefully this week I'll do better.  So here are the weigh-in results:

Start weight: 144.4 lbs

August 12th, 2012: 144.0 lbs

August 19th, 2012: 144.7 lbs

I also think I decided that maybe I'll measure myself at the end of every month instead of each week, because I don't think my measurements will change much in a week.