Valentine's Day

We don't normally do anything outrageous for Valentine's Day. We never have. We generally do a simple card and I get some flowers and chocolate.

This year I asked Steve if there was something particular he wanted, and he replied "meatballs and sauce" (I have to get used to this answer, considering I'm about to marry an Italian man!) So I started my grocery list right away of all the stuff I'd need. You see, Grandpa Teenie's meatballs and sauce are special, very special and therefore needs special ingredients. I got up Saturday morning knowing that I'd be battling the crowds at Wegmans. I try not to go to Wegmans on the weekends, knowing how insane it can get. Or, I go when I don't have plans that day, so I can spend my time fighting for space in the aisles, finding the picked over items that I desperately need, etc. This Saturday though, I was on a mission.

I spent two hours at Wegmans and made it home by 11:00am. I started cooking right away. The meatballs and sauce taste so much better after it's been cooking for a few hours. I spent the next 3 hours leisurely making about 150 meatballs and like 14 gallons of sauce (ok, maybe not that much, but a lot!) I was going to try to make it to Michael's and Target, but I'll have to tackle those later in the week.

Steve had to work until 5pm, so that gave me plenty of time to get ready. I picked up a card and chocolate truffles and two movies. We planned on keeping it very low key. Just the way I like it. Steve made it home and we snuggled in to our movie time. We watched Wall-E (AWESOME) and The Strangers (not awesome at all). I have to say, the food was awesome as well, I wasn't sure if I had nailed the taste, but Steve said it was so close, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference! That made me super happy, to be able to make these dishes the way Grandpa did.

Steve bought me roses, chocolate and a card. I love his cards. I love how he takes the time to write stuff in them. I keep them all in my "Steve box" that I have upstairs...it's getting full, but I hope to go back in that box when we're 90 and look back on our old memories.

Then Sunday, I got up early and hopped on the treadmill. I was showered and ready to rock by 9:30am. Korin and Jaime were coming over at 11:30 to go to bridal show together. It was held at Casa Larga, which was cool, but there were SO many people there! It was unbelievable! You have to register before going, and it seemed like they registered far too many people. As soon as we walked in, we got bombarded with vendors trying to talk to us. It was quite overwhelming, but good at the same time. I have already booked most of the services that vendors were there for. I already booked the florist, so I didn't need to stop at that booth. Same thing for venues, DJ, dresses etc. It was a good time though and we signed up for another show on March 15.

We're booking our DJ this week and sending in our $75 deposit. One more thing to cross off the list!

3 pounds

Finally. I've lost 3 pounds. This 3 pounds have been gone since Wednesday night. After all the complaining I did about not seeing any results. This is just a teaser. My pants definitely feel looser, the pants that have never felt loose, feel loose. This is good. Just. Gotta. Keep. It. Up. If things continue to go how they are going, I should be reaching my goal weight by May. Just in time for our engagement photo session, my boudoir pics and summer!

I'm also going to be trying this ACAI berry drink. It's supposed to be this new super food if you will. Loads of antioxidants, and all that good shit. It's supposed to help with skin issues, metabolism, energy, etc. Let's see how it goes. I have one bottle that will last me about 1.5 weeks. If I like the taste, I'm going to buy a case that should last me a month.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I'm cooking sauce and meatballs for Steve. Then I think we're going to rent a movie and hang out.

Sunday I'm going to a bridal show at Casa Larga with Korin - who by the way asked me to be in her wedding! I'm so excited that I get to share this journey with her! Her wedding isn't until October 2011, but we've been friends for life, so we know we'll always be there for each other. I can't wait to go through this with one of the most amazing, selfless people I know. It's going to be great sharing ideas, destressing each other etc. We need each other. Her fiance is going to Iraq soon and will be home at the end of this year, that's partially why they want to wait until 2011...so as soon as he gets home it's not "ok, now you're back, let's plan this wedding!" It'll give them a chance to live together as a couple and be "engaged" together before they get married.

So many things going on in the near future! I love it!

Progress?

I'm on week #4 with the treadmill. I haven't lost any weight, but my scale probably isn't the best. I want to go this weeked to buy a digital scale.

I'm not discouraged...yet...but I swear, I better see some results soon. Do my pants fit better? Yes, a little. Do I have more energy? Yes, I have to say I do. But honestly, I wanted to lose about 1 pound per week...and I haven't. I've been watching what I eat, not snacking as much etc. but it doesn't seem to be helping! I know, losing weight isn't something that happens quickly, but seriously? 3 full weeks and NO results?

Instead of going by pounds, I've been told to get a tape measure and do it by inches.

I'm going to up the ante. I'm going to stop treadmilling every other day and start doing it every day. I'll give myself a break on the weekends, but I'm going to start doing it Monday through Friday. And I'm going to go out and buy some DVDs on weight lifting so I can add that into my routine as well. I don't want to bulk up until I've gotten to my goal weight, so I don't get discouraged by gaining muscle weight.

Hopefully the next weight update will be good news. I have to do it. I'm getting boudoir photos taken in Spring for Steve. I have to look good. We're going to Bora Bora for our honeymoon. I have to be able to wear a bikini.

I think we've decided on our honeymoon. Really.

We've gone back and forth with ideas on where to go for our honeymoon. The most rational idea is to go to Hawaii since my Aunt Vivian owns a condo there. We'd be able to spend 1 week at her condo free of charge, then hop on over to another island and stay there for about a week or so.


But then...Steve mentioned how he wanted to "splurge" - like really splurge. He mentioned Bora Bora. It's been an idea floating in our heads for a couple months now, but I think we're really going to do it. We are pinching our pennies and hoping for the best. Now that it's in our heads though, we don't want to settle for anything less. It's going to be expensive. We know that. But we also know that we will probably never be able to take a vacation like that again.

I looked online recently to see what types of packages they offer and found a 11 day, 10 night honeymoon deal. 4 nights in Moorea, 3 nights in Bora Bora, and 3 nights in Manihi (all in those awesome huts!) There are little additions you can add to your package, like a private sunset cruise, private dinner on the beach, etc. I'm getting so excited looking at all of this! I even looked at flights (for THIS May because, well, 2010 calendars aren't out yet). I'm thinking though, if we book early enough and use a travel agent, we might be able to shave some costs off of what I researched. We might be able to get some kind of deal. We'll see.

a few wedding updates

I'm sure I've mentioned that we'll be visiting Casa Larga this weekend to go see the DJ company perform at an actual wedding. I'm excited. I'm hoping we love what we hear and are able to book them next week.

I've also always known what I wanted to do for favors. I want to somehow include my heritage into our wedding without making it a huge, red, Chinese wedding. So, I've decided on these:

Take out containers as favors filled with cookies. I will be using a white box with blue ribbon. Maybe I'll add a monogram sticker. (I already bought 200 of these boxes! They were on sale for .29 each!)

Here are the placecard holders I want. So cute!

Tonight Steve and I are going to send our deposit in for Pastor Jack and get that all settled. I have the agreement form, I just need Steve to initial and sign it. So, hopefully by next week, we'll really have all the big stuff booked and done with. I'm still looking for a white archway to stand under during the ceremony, but I'm not having any luck. My florist (Wegmans) does not have them and other florists are hesistant to rent out something if they aren't "dressing" it. So we'll see. Maybe I'll scratch the whole archway idea. We'll see.

And Fatima (Nick's mom) will be taking me to Michael's to check out the stuff they have there for centerpieces. I can't wait. We're going to go in early March, when the new stuff will be out.

Moto GP

Steve and I have never taken a vacation together - just us. I mean, never. We've gone camping for a few days together, but that's not really vacation...at least not to me. When we went out to California for his sister's wedding, we met up with Nick, Dan and of course his parents where there as well. So, lately, I've been bugging Steve to take a vacation with me. Just a little one. Nothing insane, nothing crazy, nothing too expensive. I mean, we ARE saving for a wedding here. So something random came up one day when Steve was watching motorcycling racing on TV. I asked if he'd be interested in actually going to one of these races. Of course, the answer was yes. Even though I'm not totally into bike racing...I think it'll be fun! I hopped on the computer to find the nearest race. There are only 2 in the US. Most of the races happen in Europe, where motorcycle racing is much more popular.

Hmmmm...the one in Laguna? That seems to be either sold out or tickets aren't available. I mean...a trip to California would be nice...but Laguna seems expensive. Our only other choice is the Moto GP in Indianapolis at the end of August. We're kind of using the excuse of our anniversary for this trip. By the time of this trip, we will have celebrated our 4 year anniversary! I can't believe it's been almost 4 years already!

So for the past week or so, I've been busy digging up details for this potential trip. To fly there, it'd be about $500 for the two of us. Gas would be about $150 each way if we chose to drive...and it'd save us about $200. Hotels in downtown Indianapolis aren't cheap by any means. We don't want to stay in a Super 8 Motel either by the way. We want to enjoy our hotel room. We don't want to feel like we have to rip the sheets and comforter off the bed and sleep fully clothed so as to keep the bed bugs away. This has proven not to be an easy task.

I have found that there seems to be a lot to do in downtown Indianapolis. So I think we'll have plenty to do if we decide to go.

Stay tuned.

birthday weekend celebrations

Well, it's another year past. Steve's birthday was yesterday and mine is tomorrow. Steve had to work all day Saturday, so I spent the day with my friend Jen, whom I've known since high school - she just had her second baby, so I made a lasagna and brought that over so she wouldn't have to cook. She has an almost two year old, Josh and little baby Jack is only two weeks old. Cutest thing ever. I seriously can't wait till it's my turn. Josh is like Jen says "a category 5 hurricane" and it's true. Ben was picking up the house and Josh was running around throwing everything on the floor. It was quite fun watching those two! I held Jack as long as I could - thinking how much he looked like Josh when he was born. But what's weird, is that Josh now looks white. I mean, blonde hair, blue eyes white. Jen is half Filipino and Ben is...you guessed it. White. When Josh was born, he had super dark hair and looked part Asian. As he grew, the Asianess wore off! His nice, dark hair fell out and was replaced by the blonde hair. Don't get my wrong, he's probably one of the cutest kids I've ever seen. I was hoping little Jack might maintain some of his heritage...but Jen's thinking, since he's so similar to Josh...that he'll eventually turn too.





So later that night, after my baby fix, we met up with my parents at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Steve requested something different this time, and man....the food was GOOD! And it so happens to be Chinese New Year, so the dragon was out, the kids in the restaurant were all trying to get a glimpse and perhaps even give the dragon a "hong bao" which literally means "red bag" or "red purse" and money is usually in these little red envelopes. It was fun.





Then, after dinner, we headed over to Rich's house to hang out for a little bit. We made it an early night and left around 11:30 or so....I was of course tired and ready for bed at that time so it was fine by me!





Friday night I had started cooking for the weekend. I told Rich I'd bring over meatballs, so Friday night, as soon as I got home, hopped on the treadmill for about 30 minutes, got started with making the meatballs. I was up making meatballs for about 3 hours! 100 meatballs. Grandpa Teenie's recipe so I can't tell you what in them...but MAN they are GOOD. Then, Saturday, before going to Jen's, I was up making her lasagna. Then Sunday, since we had lunch plans with Steve's parents to celebrate our birthdays, I made another lasagna to bring over there. It's Steve's favorite and it beats take out any day. Hmmm...

Then, after lunch, we headed over to our friend's house to do some snowmobiling. It was cold. But fun.

Steve's parents got me new free weights (YES!!!!) and he got a part for his motorcycle (of COURSE).

My parents I think gave Steve cash and I got a GORGEOUS pair of diamond earrings. I was SHOCKED! My mom really surprised me with that one! I had been bugging her for probably 2 years now...she gave me diamond earrings a long time ago, and I, of course being so responsible, lost one on a NYC subway. Before I knew it...it was gone. Me bugging her had been a complete joke, since I'm now an adult and don't need my parents to buy me stuff (I had already told Steve it was on his list!) and they completely surprised me!





Oh, and my sister bought me the book "Eat. Pray. Love" By Elizabeth Gilbert. I can't wait to read it. I've heard so many wonderful things about this book. I can't wait to snuggle up and dive right in.





And I have to post this:





You know you're a redneck when....
you have a gas hookup to your pick up truck and your snowmobile is hanging off the end. Who says there's no room!?