good-bye Christmas, hello Champagne!

A very Merry Christmas indeed.

Our first engaged Christmas – and we’re still engaged! Woo-who! We survived the holidays!

And we made out like bandits!! Best gift of the year: getting spend time with all our families, blah blah blah – of course we were excited to see our families and spend time together – but the loot wasn’t too bad either.

Here we are on Christmas Eve.

Me and Mom about the eat some yummy food! We were rocking the plaid this Christmas.

Here we are at dinner the night before Christmas Eve.

So yeah, we had a wonderful time and now I’m looking forward to going out on New Year’s Eve and enjoying Friday off from work. They say whatever you do on New Year’s Day sets the tone for what you’ll do all year. Which means I’ll be working out and eating healthy and …. yeah right.

Oh and I still don’t have my ring and I’m getting very irritated. It’s amazing how having a ring makes you feel MORE engaged than just the fact that you’re getting married. I just read a book about that phenomenon — not from a scientific standpoint though. It’s called The Sleeping Beauty Proposal and it’s all about wearing a ring and pretending to be engaged when you’re really not.  There is just something about a sparkling diamond that makes being engaged feel more special. That might be shallow but it’s true.

On that note -

ciao. Mo.

Wedding Storyboard

I just added a storyboard to my wedding blog.

I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now and couldn’t decide if I should share it or not – I mean what if I pick all those things – everyone will show up and already have seen everything. Hmm. But of course, I decided to post it anyway. Who knows what the wedding will end up looking like, certainly not me and it’s my/our wedding.

I should be getting my ring back before the end of the year – I’ve absolutely hated not having it – but soon it will be back on my left ring finger where it belongs.

In other news – I’ve finished a couple books recently.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella

I really enjoyed them all. I’m looking forward to reading Dan Brown’s new book and some other books I purchased off Amazon. Once the boy is gone I’ll need things to fill up the hours. Speaking of – there are some things on my to-do list for this next year.

1. Re-do the house. This includes painting and updating. Just want to put some finishing touches on the house so it looks even better than it already does.

2. Learn to cook. Now, I know how to cook – but I mean actually figure out how to do it well. I REALLY want a kitchen aide and pasta press so I can make my own pasta but I don’t have $350 laying around to spend on that. Maybe some people will go in on it and get it for us as a wedding gift.

3. Scrapbook. I haven’t really scrapbooked since I graduated from State and I really need to get a post-college one started. I want to do post-college/engaged one and then we’re married one (clearly this project lapses into 2011).

I’d also like to get into an exercise routine – but that’s not so much a goal as something that HAS to happen.

Anyway – I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

SNOW!!

It’s snowing!! Happy one week til Christmas!!

D.C. (Which could be District of Columbia or Dead Cold)

I love a vacation! The fiance has been in DC for training and I took off Thursday and Friday of last week to go visit! We had an excellent trip. Thursday night we went to an Italian restaurant in Alexandria, VA called Bertucci’s. It was delicious! Mmmm tortellini.

After braving the cold for dinner we headed back to base since G had to get up early for class on Friday. Friday morning I went to Starbucks on base to get some coffee – it was soooo cold and use the WiFi since the “hotel” didn’t have Internet access. That was probably the most frustrating thing about the rooming situation. We used my Blackberry to find restaurants and stuff so I guess it worked out.

The last time I was in DC, my cousin and her beau took us to O’Connell’s and I wanted to take G there. The staff there is pretty much all from Ireland – the bartender was from Dublin and has only lived in America for four years. Friday night my cousin and her new beau and a friend of theirs met us there and we had a great time! The food was really great and we hung out and talked until 1 a.m. So fun!

On Friday I did my research on which metro to take into downtown DC and to see the monuments and stuff – it was only 3 miles from where were staying and it said they had short-term parking for like $5 so we thought it would be fine. Uhh…the Anacostia Metro in the the WORST part of DC – like REALLY. We drove down there and it was the projects or however you call it. It was pretty bad so we decided to drive up to the next Metro station but it was really confusing so we just drove up a bit more and before we knew it we were there! Oops. We parked for free at the Capital building and starting walking.

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Of course there are NO restaurants super close to the monuments so we had to walk FOREVER in the cold to find a place to eat – but when we finally did it was amazing! If you’re ever in DC check out Poste. It was awesome. And right around the corner from the Spy Museum. This is the only museum we went to and it was pretty cool. Lots of interesting facts and stuff about spies. It was pretty crowded so we only spent about an hour there going through the Exhibits. I would have liked it more probably on a Tuesday morning. Oh well.

Then we made our way to the monuments. We walked up to the Washington Monument which had like 300 Santas all hanging out at the bottom. We decided not to go to the top – and opted to hike down through the rest of the sites. We saw the new World War II Memorial which was really cool. It is at the end of the Reflecting Pond. There is a pretty fountain in the middle but because it was winter, the water was frozen – I bet it looks really awesome in the warmer months!

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We made our way down to the Korean War Memorial which was interesting. The statues of the soldiers were really ghost-like. So sad to think of the soldiers who die at war. The wall for the Korean Memorial doesn’t have the names of soldiers but really cool reflections – G took a photo of my reflection in the wall –

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Next was the Lincoln Memorial - very cool. The details in the architecture are crazy. And everything is so HUGE. You would have thought the forefathers were giants or something. Weird. Anyway. After Lincoln, we hit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  All those names…it’s really something. The wall is designed so that the first name and the last name are next to each other – the names are listed according to when that soldier died. The names coming full circle are supposed to offer a bit of closure…but so many people were lost. G mentioned how they will have to change all the text soon when the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars become the longest in America’s history and Vietnam is no longer the longest war.

By this time it was getting even colder so we decided to take a taxi back to our car before heading over to Arlington Cemetery. I went there just a couple years ago but G wanted to see the changing of the guard and I wanted to see all the Christmas wreaths on the graves. The number of people buried there is intense.  (More than 300,000). It’s like everywhere you turn there are hundreds upon hundreds of dead soldiers. What an amazing sacrifice they gave for our freedom. There are some non-soldiers buried here as well – one being one of the students killed in the Virginia Tech Massacre. Another person buried there is Pierre Charles L’Enfant – the designer of the city of Washington. No wonder G and I couldn’t find our way around – a French guy designed the city. There is no grid layout – it’s all diagonals and star bursts designs. I’m sure it looks great from space but from the street it looks like one bad left turn away from a street fight.

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Saturday night we were tired so we just went to Georgetown for a quiet French dinner at Cafe La Roche - it was very good! And then went back and passed out. Before I left on Sunday we went to Arlington for brunch – best restaurant of the weekend – Carlyle - so delish!!

All in all it was a great vacation. Probably our last for awhile.

ciao. mo.

sneak peak

Peace in the Nation’s Capital.

Love in DC this Christmas!!

Not Fit For PSI

Last year (as in literally 12 months ago next Sunday) I purchased my first car. And of course by purchased I mean took out a loan in my name and they own my car. Just in case any of you were wondering if I shelled out the $14,000 cash money. I didn’t. I bought a Honda Fit. It’s black and pretty much looks like a space ship. I love it because the seats are all foldy and it has enough room to fit everything I could possibly want but I still fit in itty bitty baby parking spots. Horray, yes?

I have had no complaints about my car (unless you count my fiance complaining about driving a girl car – which I don’t since my fiance has to roll down the window to open the door to get out of his truck…trust me – jokes on him) until now. It’s probably a stupid complaint but it’s a complaint none the less. My tire pressure light is TOOO sensitive. This light has been the dark abyss that haunts my morning, lunch and evening commutes and occasional (meaning bi-weekly) shopping trips. It’s really not my car’s fault – she just wants to let me know that the psi is down by 1. Yup that’s right – ONE psi. The cold whether sucks the pressure down and the light comes on. Sunday, the fiance took the car to the gas station and they were down 12 psi. seriously? He filled them up, the light went off and Monday morning on my way to work, who should creep up on me? The light!! Arrg.

I called Honda today and the service man told me that the censor is VERY sensitive [thanksfortheupdatecaptainobvious]. I asked if I should just fill them up on a weekly basis until the warmth returns and my life can return to its regularly scheduled programming (which is work all day, 30 min on the treadmill, followed by ordering Pizza Hut and napping on the couch until 9:30 when I go to bed).  He said to just bring it in and he could fix it. Haha – I’m not falling for that nonsense.

I am going to go by there – but I’m not letting him charge me to fill up my tires. I can get any Joe on the street to do that for free. Or if I’m really desperate, I can nag my fiance until he does it.Kidding-ish.

ciao. mo.

No More Lazy

The past two weeks I’ve fallen off the wagon. Originally I decided to take Thanksgiving week off from the treadmill. What a stupid idea. It wasn’t so much a decision – I just sort of gave up. Then last week I was all…I WILL work out…well if 30 minutes on Tuesday and 15 minutes on Wednesday counts – then woo who – I’m good!!

No? I didn’t think so. Well this week is different. I can tell a HUGE difference in my personality depending on whether or not I’ve worked out. When I don’t work out I get all yelly and stabby and every little thing is the BIGGEST PROBLEM EVER!!! And no I didn’t stab anyone…yet.

It’s so weird how important something like 30 minutes a night on the treadmill is. Oh well – live and learn and then run on the treadmill until you’re crying tears of blood. Maybe not that intense. I need to get back into my wedding dress mentality. I found one that I love in a mag – but of course it’s a Vera Wang. Blah. I’d rather not spend a down-payment on car on a wedding dress thankyouverymuch.

oh Christmas tree

here it is.

merry christmas.

New (Bad) Moon

There are no spoilers – just in case you’re wondering B.

I’ve been meaning to write about this since I saw New Moon but I’ve had other things on my mind – clearly. I dragged the fiance to see New Moon on a Friday night date the night it came out. Mistake numero uno. Going to see a movie that isn’t up his alley is never a good idea (case in point – Nights in Rodanthe – it was so quiet in the theater you could hear a pin drop – and my boyfriend laughing so hard that I couldn’t help but laughing too – it was crazy embarrassing and you’d think I’d learned my lesson – nope).

So we get in and the manager is pumping everyone up with lots of “Team Jacob” and “Team Edward” nonsense- I’m team Edward in case anyone was wondering but probably not. He’s actually my age so it’s far less creepy that the whole Team Jacob scenario. Anyway – the second Jacob takes his shirt off in the movie – leave it to my fiance to start fawning (in joking manner of course) really loudy – a lot of ‘wooo whooo’ sounds were coming from our direction. Yay. Of course, cut to an hour later and he was fast asleep so what does that tell you.

Anyway – my thoughts on the movie? To keep it short and simple – not good. The CGI wolves weren’t great and the whole thing was little too surface entertainment for me. I’ll still be going to Eclipse though – what can I say? I’m a sucker.

ciao. mo.

Oh the holidays are home sweet home

My house is in shambles. It has nothing to do with the party we threw for my grandpa’s 80th birthday – but it does have something to do with Christmas. I wanted to throw all the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving but due to some mitigating circumstances that didn’t happen. We actually spent the day in Fayetteville taking my engagement and wedding rings to the jewelry spa (yay!) and while we were there something interesting happened. However, you’ll have to wait and find out about that when I post it to my wedding blog. Which should be shortly. I hope.

So anyway – the house is in shambles because I lugged all the Christmas decorations down from the attic and I had no idea what to do with them. The tree was pretty easy – we got it up and put lights on it (it’s one strand short of having enough lights but I’ve been too distracted and poor to make it the store to purchase the $1.88 finale to the tree). We got our tree from Lowe’s because I couldn’t wait for the church to start selling them the day after Thanksgiving because I wanted it to sit in a bucket of water for two days. Yeah, I’m cool like that. We picked the 6-7 foot Douglas Fir and while I distinctly remember telling mom that I should get a tall skinny one, I mostly picked out a tall fat one. Oops. When we brought it inside and put it up – it was literally a half inch from the ceiling. Oops [i did it] again.  We later cut it off and threw it in the backyard – then two nights ago I thought Lola brought it in the house and carried it upstairs under my bed, but it turns out it was only a corn cob that had been eaten and dug out of the trash by my adorable little puppy. Yay holidays.

So we got the tree up and the lights on and the fiance and I even managed to put ornaments on together (without breaking any of them) while he watched football and I complained about the lack of Christmas music and he reminded me that I’ve been listening to Christmas for three – four weeks already and that I should stop talking because he can’t hear the TV over me. Oops. I even got all my PartyLite Christmas candles and candle holders put out and our stockings hung by the fireplace with care. I wrapped 90% of the gifts and put them under the tree and it’s all great! Except all the boxes and bags and nonsense still laying around the living room. There is still so much to do. I did manage to make it to the post office today to buy holiday stamps which means Christmas cards should be going out tomorrow! Woo Who.

Eh, I’ll be glad when Christmas Eve comes and I can’t stop stressing and just enjoy everyone’s company!! I hope to post some pictures tonight of our Christmas tree and our decorations. Maybe I’ll be able to convince the fiance that it’s Christmas movie-watching time!!

ciao. mo.