Friday, April 17, 2009

and so it begins....

I had my first wedding dream/nightmare last night. I have heard stories of other brides having these dreams/nightmares and I was wondering when I'd have my first. I call it a nightmare even though it wasn't THAT bad...but only because as I was putting on my wedding dress, with the help of my bridesmaids, I realized that I have never gotten any alterations done, got the bustle taken care of...and no shoes. I realized that I had stopped wedding planning at where I am right now (a year out) and the guys had no tuxes since we never went to go pick any out. I don't remember what the girls were wearing....then all of a sudden it skipped to the reception and I was tossing the bouquet to the single ladies (put your hands up!) and it hit the ceiling, fell and no one picked it up.

For some reason I don't remember any of the guys being in my dream. I'm not sure if they were even at the wedding! Ha!

I do have to say though, my dress looked AWESOME on me in my dream. I went to my parents house the other weekend and went to go take a look at it. I want to try it on again, now that I have lost 4 pounds (that's right folks, still holding steady at only losing 4 pounds in 3 months, don't even get me started!) so I'm wondering if the dress will look different on me now. It has a corset back, so I know I won't need alterations really, but I'm just curious to know if there will be a difference. My clothes fit much better, my jeans fit awesome....I don't have a muffin top anymore when I put on jeans fresh out of the dryer....c'mon you know what I'm talking about....maybe I'll take a trip over there again and try it on. Just for fun. Oh and I need one of those underneath skirt puffer outer. You know what I'm talking about? That thing that you put on under the dress to keep it puffed out and big-looking. I need to find one of those.

I'm so excited to be coming down to our 1 year mark. I know, sounds kind of stupid since one year is like an eternity. But's it's pretty huge to us. We've been engaged for 10 months. This 10 months really have flown by. I hope the next year flies too!

Did I mention we're getting our engagement pictures done on 5/23? So excited for that. Steve started running on the treadmill to get in shape for our pictures. Haha...who knew he was so vain!

In other news, tomorrow I have a birthday party to go to. It's for my flower girl Charli! I absolutely CANNOT believe she's 3. THREE! Where did the time go!? Steve and I are going to Target today after work to get her a gift. So fun. Too bad he can't come too since he's working tomorrow.

OH and one more thing: the director of client services and VP of my company (who is awesome by the way) called me into her office. I was a little TERRIFIED since news around this time is never good, but it turned out to be good news! I was asked if I'd like to be put on another account. OF COURSE! Anything to keep me challenged and busy! She said "we would love to have you on XXX account. There has been a lot of turnover for this client and we would like to have someone who will be around for a long time, someone we can trust to take the bull by the horns and run with it." AWESOME. I'm excited! I attended my first meeting yesterday, even though all I did was sit there and listen. But I can't wait to enter new territory and learn new things!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Perspective

I recently found some old friends on Facebook. Well, I found my old friend's little sister and father on Facebook. I haven't seen this old friend since I was a senior in highschool. This is the friend who I met at the tender age of 11, in 6th grade. I have to admit, we got in a ton of trouble together, but being her friend definitely had an impact on how my life turned out and who I am today.

She was like my sister in a way. We shared the fact that I'm Asian and she's half. We loved that about each other. We almost pretended to be sisters to strangers in fact. I spent countless hours at her house, staying up late, sneaking out, smoking cigarettes. Joy riding in our friend Jesse's minivan. So many memories. She unfortunately, due to many things, dropped out of school and ended up in a foster home. We lost track of each other shortly after that....until one random day. I was a senior in high school, I hadn't seen her in probably 2-3 years. She stopped over my house and was showing off her beautiful baby girl who she had named Deana. She looked great being a new mom, but it was very different for me. I was still a kid, partying like there was no tomorrow, had new friends....it was very different to see her as a mom and living her new lifestyle. I had no idea where she was living, who the baby-daddy was or anything about her new life.

A few months later (maybe more than a few) I stopped at her parents house to see her with her now almost-one-year-old daughter. And she was pregnant with #2. Again, she looked great, her family seemed put together again. All seemed well. We went to the park with her baby and spent the time catching up and spending time together. That was the last time I ever saw her.

I recently found her younger sister on Facebook and immediately sent her a message asking about my friend. I was told they are both now living in Hawaii (awesome!) and that my friend now had 3 kids. There were only a few pictures posted, and they weren't great, but from what I can tell, my friend looks amazing and look like she hasn't changed in all these years.

Then I found her father on Facebook as well and found some blogs he's posted over the years. This is where I got emotional. He writes in his blogs about his oldest daughter (my friend) who is serving in Iraq. Turns out my friend decided to get her life in better order and joined the United States Army. She's has served two tours in Iraq (while leaving her two babies behind ---#3 came later). I can't imagine what it would be like to leave your babies behind while you go fight on the front lines. My friend, my sister. She's only 5'2" and maybe 105lbs. Maybe. She was always a fighter and I always knew she'd end up on top. To find out all of this happened while I was going to college, getting a job, moving home, buying a house...to know that she was on the front lines fighting for MY freedom. Ugh. My heart just filled with love, emotion, everything I could imagine. I NEVER thought I'd feel this way. Maybe it's because I had this bond with this one person....and just never thought she'd go through this.

I haven't yet made contact with her personally, just a few messages back and forth to her dad and sister. I gave my phone number so I'm really, really, hoping she'll call. She also just recently bought a motorcycle and has been riding it a lot....HOW FREAKIN COOL. I can't wait to get on the phone with this girl and actually talk to her. I want to hear from her what life's been like. I want to know if she's still on active duty or if she's done with the Army. I want to know what it's like to have 3 kids. I want to know if/when she'll be coming home so I can try to meet up with her. I have this flood of emotion and I'm not sure how to handle it. I'm shocked at my reaction to finding all of this out. I keep obsessively checking my Facebook account, hoping I get a new message from someone in her life.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Time for E-pics!

It's finally time! We booked our photographer a while back and at that time, it was just starting to become fall/winter here, so Steve and I decided to wait until Spring to have our engagement pictures done.

I contacted my photographer www.johnlarkinphotography.com and got a date on the calendar. Saturday, May 23 at 4pm. That will give us plenty of natural light since we'll be outdoors. I haven't quite decided on a location just yet....there is this cute little park that Steve and I take the dogs to that's right down the street from our house. It's got a long, straight trail, with tons of trees towering overhead. I think it'll be super cute there. Then I'm not sure of a second location. I was thinking maybe at the other park, near the canal. We'll see. I'll have to drive around and see what's out there. This is so exciting! It's going to start feeling real soon, now that we're able to actually DO stuff for the wedding.

We're down to less than 14 months now. Ok, I know it's still SO FAR AWAY....but seeing that we've been engaged for 9 months already and that went by pretty fast....I'm really hoping the next 14 months go by fast too! I think once summer really hits, time will just FLY by. At least I hope so!