Valentine's Day

Yesterday was my last Valentine's Day being "single" and next year, I can shop for a card in the "For My Husband" section! Wohoo! Sam sent me these beautiful flowers at work. It brightened my whole day to get a surprise delivery in the afternoon right when the kids were full of sugar and sweets from their Valentine party. Excellent timing because I was about to pull my hair out!

Valentine's Day has always been a fun holiday and I still don't understand why people get so bitter about it if they are not in a relationship. I just learned that 12% of women send themselves flowers at work on Valentine's Day to look good in front of their co-workers! 12%!!!! That is so pathetic! Just because you do not have a boyfriend or girlfriend on Valentine's Day, doesn't mean it's a horrible holiday...how about sending a flower to your mom or dad to say thanks for raising you? Or how about taking a bouquet of flowers to a nursing home and giving a rose to each resident who probably lost their own Valentine years ago? Or even still, how about making cookies and taking them to a homeless shelter? I have no patience and time for people who wallow in their own self-pity, especially around Valentine's Day. Use the day as an opportunity to spread some love to others!

Time is flying!

Yesterday I moved out of my apartment and into my parent's house until the wedding and it dawned on me as I was moving that a new part of my life was just beginning. I was now in official wedding countdown mode because my single life was over ~ I will never again be signing an apartment lease for one, coming home from work to an empty place, grocery shopping for 1, or cooking for 1...I'm going from "me" to "we" and it thrills me! With each box I carried to my car, I had this exciting bubble welling up inside me at the thought of spending the rest of my life with Sam. I hate the marriage symbol of a "ball and chain" because if that is truly how a person feels getting married, he/she should NOT be walking down the aisle! When I think of my future with Sam, the thought of being "tied down" never crosses my mind. It's actually the opposite - I feel free to try anything my heart desires because I have someone to catch me if I fall and soar with me when I fly. I'm not in this life alone and it's an awesome feeling to have someone to share everything with. Marriage is like gaining a pair of wings; not a ball and chain.

Only 89 days until I marry my best friend, my soulmate, and my love. I feel like shouting it from every rooftop!

DIY Colleen

My new favorite website is Pinterest and it has taken over our new house! Ha! If you've never been to Pinterest, you have to check it out. Basically it's a site for sharing pictures of anything and everything via "bulletin boards" created by users. You can create theme boards of anything - recipes, crafts, favorite quotes, fashion, wedding, etc. - and every picture you post is linked to the website where you found the idea. I'm on it mainly for the DIY crafts because I love creating in my new craft room, which you can see by my pictures! Since Valentine's day is approaching, I thought our house needed some sprucing up ~ fabric framed heart, felt heart tree branches, garland for the mantle, and a table runner for the island. I found each of these crafts online just doing a standard Google search of Valentine craft ideas, and then when I found something I liked, I "pinned" to my Pinterest bulletin board to save the idea. Before Pinterest, I would save websites to my favorites folder or save pictures to my desktop, but now it's so much easier to put in on Pinterest and all my crafting projects are in one location sorted however I want them. Love it!

That's how it goes

It's true what parents say about giving young children toys - they are more interested in the box and wrapping paper than what's inside. However, we still continue to buy the neatest noise-making, sparkly, hippest toys because we think the child will love it. Apparently, despite all my years studying child development, I still fell trap to this phenomenon. I have a desk drawer at school full of stickers - glittery, shiny, holographic, animals, disney characters, princesses, fairies, etc. You name it and I probably have that sticker in my drawer. Wouldn't you know it, today when I asked what sticker one of the kids wanted to work for, he chose the produce sticker off his banana. *sigh*

Extreme Couponing!

The coupon fever has hit! There's a show on TLC called "Extreme Couponing" that follows women who go to the extreme to save money at the grocery store. I mean these women are really crazy - it's literally a full-time job strategizing what products to get at what stores and which manufacturers are offering specials, etc. They have binders filled with coupons, maps of stores with aisles coded to match the coupons, and every inch of their basements stockpiled with items. Quite frankly, I'm skeptical of that show because Sam and I have done the math along with the show to see how much is being saved and we never come up with anything close to what they say is saved.

Anyways, I did my own version of extreme couponing tonight and I must say, even though I only saved $37.00, I was so excited that I had Sam take a picture of me in the check-out line and I squealed in delight when the cashier handed me the receipt. Wow. I should tattoo "DORK" on my forehead. $37.00 is a lot of money to save buy taking a few minutes to cut out pieces of paper, but the women on the show save hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a single grocery trip...one of the shows I saw, a women bought something like $1,400 in groceries and after coupons, paid only $50. Sam asked how many of the products that I bought with coupons would I normally buy without, and really there wasn't anything that I bought that I wouldn't normally. I'm careful to only clip coupons of items I already purchase so that I don't fall into the trap of buying things I don't like or won't use just because I have a coupon. And, furthermore, there were several items that I had a coupon for that I ended up not getting because a different brand was still less expensive without the coupon. So, I may not be an extreme couponer, but I'm a responsible one :)

New Year; New Goals

Happy New Year to everyone! 10 days into 2012 and I'm just now getting around to writing this post. I wanted to write it sooner but school started up again and wedding mode is kicked into high gear. It dawned on me that all those little wedding details I had been putting off until after the new year now have to be faced. We have the major things down - ceremony church, reception venue, my dress and bridesmaids, tuxedos, cake tasting, and photography - but there is much to do still! Mom and I went flower shopping on Monday and I purchased my headpiece for my veil, but I still have shoes to find, which is always easier said than done when it comes to my giant feet! Lol! Slowly but surely it will all get done.

Anyways, it's a new year which means it's time to setting some new goals! Here are my 2012 goals:

1. Be calm as the wedding approaches and remember it is only one day and a marriage is a lifetime. My goal is not to stress about the little things because let's be honest, no one is going to remember every detail of our wedding 30 years from now. I am preparing to spend the rest of my life with my best friend, not just one day.

2. Enjoy this year of weddings supporting all my friends who are also planning the rest of their lives! I'm a bridesmaid in one destination wedding this year, and will be attending the wedding of two other friends, as well as helping another friend plan her wedding for 2013, so I really want to be a good support person for these wonderful women in my life.

3. Spend more time in prayer thanking God for everything He has blessed me with - a fiance soon to be husband, family, friends, a good job that I enjoy, a delightful new home, good health, etc. My goal is to pray the rosary every week and spend that time in reflection and thanksgiving.

And.....although I can't label this as an official goal because I'm still undecided about it myself....I might like to get a pet this year. Sam likes dogs and cats (and lizards, sugar gliders, parrots, tigers, etc. but I'm not entertaining those likes!) and I like cats, so I always thought I wanted a cat. BUT, I'm now thinking about maybe a dog. Not a little yapper and not a huge dog that would eat me, but something medium size that doesn't smell and shed a bunch. Sam's mom just got a new dog and I have to admit I really had fun playing with him in the yard. It got me thinking that a dog might be fun, but I have to give it some more thought. So, getting a pet is not a goal per se for 2012 but it may happen.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading my blog this past year. I'll continue with it as best I can :)

Candlelight dinner

Christmas is my favorite time of year for many reasons, but one of the predominant reasons is because it's the one time of year where women can wear fancy party dresses and eat as much desserts as they want without the nagging little voice in their head saying, "drop the cookie and look at your fat thighs in the mirror." Desserts are a widely accepted and embraced part of Christmas and instead of looking at a creme brulee thinking, "wow, that's a whole bowl of fat and calories," I can look at it and think, "what a beautiful raspberry and mint leaf adorning the top."

Sam and I had a beautiful and delicious evening at the Franklin Park Conservatory, dining on fabulous dinner and dessert fares while surrounded by lush, tropical plants in the Palm House, romantically lit by candles on the tables and faint Chinese lanterns hung from the ceiling. I knew it was going to be spectacular when I first saw the dramatic tree branches and Christmas lights adorning the walkway to the Palm House. We ate dinner, listened to a live concert going on in the main lobby, and walked around admiring the numerous gingerbread creations on display. Fabulous evening with my fiance :)