Things I Wish I Could Register For

Gifts. They're almost a taboo topic. Obviously we're going to get gifts. It's a wedding. It's part of the deal. But you don't want to be anxious about gifts or anything. You want to be polite. But it's like an on going Christmas. I can honestly say that my very most favorite part about this wedding business has been getting to see people that I haven't seen in so so long, or meet people. It's a bonus that they seem to be holding gifts when I see them! This whole wedding thing has opened my eyes to the gifting business. I was apparently living in the dark. My mom told me that there's a difference between a wedding gift and a shower gift when she told me that she was picking up our shower gift and I explained to her that she'd already given us our wedding gift. I'd like to go ahead and say now that I do not believe in this system and if you already got me a gift NO NEED FOR ANOTHER ONE. Seriously. But that got me thinkin... weddings are going to be a regular thing this next year. Every one is engaged. I gotta think out my strategy for all of this upcoming gifting. I will tell you that my new favorite (and very cost-friendly) gift is to buy return address labels for the new couple for their new home. Isn't that cute? Go ahead, steal the idea.
But I said it got me thinkin, I have no conclusion about how the shower/wedding gift issue works. I think I'm just going to set a budget and if multiple gifts fall under that budget, so be it. If not, well then I guess I'll just drop off the 1 gift at the shower if I'm invited. That seems reasonable to me.
Anyway, we've done our registering which was a lesson on "working together." I swear Matt and I are completely different people. If a miracle of an agreement came along when we registered, it was immediately clicked. I almost had a panic attack when  our plates were being discontinued because Matt and I would
1) Have to find time to re-register and
2) Find something we agreed on again! NOO!!!
My parents bought us our entire plate/bowl/cups selection. Bless them.

But over time, you just get slammed with every possible opportunity for weddings. Well we're not going to register at 20 different stores because that would be silly, so over time, just for my own enjoyment (and a potential blog post) I made a list of things that I wish I could register for. So for your enjoyment, here goes:

Well first, I registered for a whole 4 items on Pottery Barn. Honestly, I think Pottery Barn has super cute stuff, but I think it's over priced. I never advertised the registry because it only has 4 things and is really a waste of time. I tried not to register for anything that I would never buy for someone else. There's a few things on our registry that's totally expensive and nuts, but at the same time, I would buy something really expensive for my best friend or little brother or something if they REALLY REALLY wanted it and it actually had a function like bedding, so there's the rationale on that.  So anyway, there's a couple of things that are actually reasonable at Pottery Barn that I wouldn't mind having and will probably just buy for myself after the wedding.

I would REALLY REALLY love for a blog with a format of my choosing. I am not in love with my current format and I would like it to be more personalized with subject dividers for different topics I want to talk about. Yes, I would consider this a gift. A gift that keeps on giving!!

I'd like to advertise my amazon wish list. Wouldn't that be funny? Shanna and Matt are registered on amazon.com for the following books and movies....

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART..... Photoshop. That software is expensive! Maybe I'll work at a snocone stand this summer and save my pennies and buy it. I really want it. I really want to expand my photography. It's a really expensive hobby though.
While we're at it. I would take a 2nd job at a competing sno cone stand to buy an external flash.

For an environmentalist, I have an addiction to stationery. Things with my monogram and just cute stuff. I absolutely adore sending mail to people. I like to brighten some one's day amongst the bills.

I tried to tell Danielle that I wanted some flannel pajamas for my bachelorette party because that's what I'd actually wear. I would tell you what she said but it wouldn't be appropriate. I can tell you that I didn't get any flannel pajamas though.

Finally, there's these measuring cups on anthropolgie.com. Another store that's completely over priced, but geez they're so cute! Before I move out of a town that has an anthropologie, I will have those measuring cups! I think they're more for decoration then utility, and I love that about them. Wanna seem em? Well here ya go.

Hope you enjoyed! Maybe I should invent a website where you can register for things from multiple stores. I could make a killing! We're registered at shannasawesomeregistry.com. Free shipping! I hate paying for shipping. I really do.

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R.S.V.P. Find Out What it Means to Me

Well now we're in full swing for the wedding planning. I'm going to the chapel this evening to discuss how I want everything for the ceremony, which I haven't even begun to think about.
May 1st is our deadline for RSVPs for the wedding. I never knew how much RSVPs meant until I got involved with all of this wedding business. Every person really does count. So here's some info on why to send your RSVP
1) If you were invited to something, chances are you were included within an elite list. I have been very careful to not invite people to functions unless I really wanted them there. I didn't want any one to feel like I was just asking for a gift.
2) Stationary is expensive. Yay! You made the elite list. That means I was willing to spend money on you. Especially from the shower. I wont even tell you how much that stationary cost. But it was SO. Stinkin. Cute.
3) Throwing a party is expensive. Once again, I was willing to spend money on you. Do I want to have wine for 50 people and only 10 show up? Well... maybe the wine... but not all of the food and planning that a larger guest list requires.
4) A head count requires planning for a lot of things. Things such as food, seating, and parking. How do we plan accordingly if we don't know how many are coming?
5) The last, last thing a bride wants to do is have to say "So.... uh.... you..coming to this event?"

I think part of the problem is that people in general don't like to disappoint others. And sure, it's disappointing if you can't be there. May it be a shower, or the wedding itself. But in reality, a sound minded bride should understand if her invitees have other things going on. In my experience thus far, I haven't minded at all if people have other things going on. But what I do mind is calling and asking if you're coming. This girl just doesn't have time for such things! What's funny (shouldn't call people out, but I am) is that like 1/2 of our wedding party hasn't RSVP'd which is probably because they assume that I assume that they'll be there. WELL YA KNOW WHAT ASSUMING DOES!?!?!? ha ha, just kidding.

But at the end of the day, if you don't RSVP, I'll give ya a call and we can catch up. Maybe I can talk you into running a wedding errand for me ;)

Moral of the story: If you have been so lucky to receive an invite to the wedding (listen, you know I love ya, but we can't invite everyone. This isn't the royal wedding, and even THEY had to limit their list to 1900) you should take that special little RSVP with the STAMPED envelope and go drop it off at your local United States Postal Service!

With love,
Getting married in 25 days.

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Hello World, How Ya Been?

I'm starting to look like a Cullen. I've never worked so hard on something in my entire life. After upwards of 500 hours, 88 pages, and 19,116 words, I have finished my thesis. I really enjoyed working on it until the end. Towards the end it was really discouraging and I hated it all. Well today I submitted it and there's nothing I can do to change it, so let's enjoy life and get to plannin' this wedding!

What have I been up to the last month or so? Lots.

I had 2 wedding showers in 8 days.

The first shower was the Tulsa shower. It was "vintage" themed and I could not have imagined a more perfect shower. We had so much fun. Well at least I think we did. I had a great time. It was soo wonderful to see people that I hadn't seen in a very long time. My gifts were breathe taking. It was just a great day.

Here's Lucy and I at the shower. I'm Lucy's hero. You get bonus points if you know what that means. I was soooo happy to see her. She lives in Kansas these days so I don't get to see her nearly enough.

The second shower was in Duncan and it was a "display" shower. What's a display shower you say? Well, that's what I said anyway. Well I'll show you.

This is a display shower. Essentially you register at local stores (woo local economy!) and they put ribbons and cellophane around your gifts and put tags on them so you know who they came from. It's like the eco-friendly shower. It's also space friendly. There were a lot of people who came in and out of the shower. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of lovely women that Matt has known his whole life. Oh, and above is only table 1 of 2. We're blessed. Too blessed.

And just for grins here's a picture of Matt and I at the shower. He came to load up the loot. Then we drove down to Midland where I stayed for a couple of days to celebrate Matt's birthday and use up the last bit of my vacation time. 

Matt's birthday surprises! Matt turned 24. You know what's good about that? We'll both be 24 when we get married. Hopefully it takes our kids a long time to do the math and realize that Mom is older than Dad. That's going to be an irritating day. However, I'll have been lying about my age for YEARS before that happens. So maybe it wont be an issue.

Since I came home from Midland, I've been making last minute touches on my thesis and enjoyed an amazing weekend of next to nothing. It was divine!

So here's to more blogging, wedding planning, and general joy and satisfaction with life! Woo!

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Oh I Wanna Blog

I wanna blog, but I can't. Fun things are happening. But I can't. I have some cool topics cooked up. But I can't. My life has been taken over by my thesis. I probably have around 50 hours this week just dedicated to the paper. I defend on Wednesday. Before you read any more, please say a prayer for me.

Brief (very brief) update:

All I do is work on my thesis.
Crest White Strips really do work. I'm 2 days in and notice a difference and I bought the cheap ones (AND used a coupon).
Bridal Portraits on Saturday. So excited despite the fact that I have ZERO time. Still excited though.
The sound track of my life right now it the Avett Brothers Pandora station. It will change your life. Go... turn it on now.
1st wedding shower is Sunday. I will post pictures after I defend my thesis.
I am reading "Water for Elephants" at night to wind down and get some rest. I like it a lot and I am really looking forward to the movie.
I wake up every morning (not just lately, every morning) really grouchy when I have to get up early. I have forced myself to sing in my head "This is the day, This is the day that the Lord has made. That the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it!" We all know that song, right? It's working. A little positivity in the morning has significantly affected my day.
That's all I have for now. Looking forward to having my life back and being able to blog soon!
Don't forget me in your prayers! I need them!

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Midland Weekend!

I went to Midland last Thursday. I had such a good time and some of the best parts were that we didn't run around constantly. I got to spend a lot of time just spending time with my future husband. But of course we did fun things too!

Friday night, one of the girls down there, Sara, threw me a bachelorette party. I am too lucky and get 2 bachelorette's! It was really fun and a great opportunity to meet some new girls down in Midland.

That is Sara and she hosted the party. It was so generous and absolutely adorable. She and I are going to be really good friends, I can already tell.

Check out the super cute cake!!

One thing about Sara, when she throws a party, she goes all out. She had pictures of Matt and I framed all over the house. She used the invitations as decorations. She's really creative.

Like I said, Matt and I kept it pretty low key. We went to some gardening stores and worked on the garden (can't wait til it blooms!). And we did make time for some good drinks.

What you're seeing here is what they call a "Coronarita". Which is basically what it sounds like: A Corona poured into a margarita. I'll be trying one of those again. Just to make sure I liked it the first time....

And Pistol Pete got his first Pistol Pete!! When you squeeze it, it plays the "wave the wheat" song (sorry, I have no idea what the actual title is....). So we waved the wheat allllll weekend. At least he loved it! True Cowboy!!

We even made some time on Sunday to kill some fake birds. You'll be happy to hear that I can sport an impressive 6% accuracy. What what! Or maybe you'll be happy to hear that I can sport pink eye protection and vest. Which ever you prefer.

So I guess we actually did do a lot, but it didn't seem nearly as crazy as it normally does. It helped that I was there from Thursday to Monday afternoon instead of my old days of 48 hours or less.

I am actually excited to call Midland my home. It will never be home like Northeast Oklahoma, but it will do for a while. I get to enroll at Texas Tech tomorrow! Woo!

Thesis defense is April 13th. I'll be spending the weekend in Stillwater working because that's how I roll these days.

Special shout out to Jessica W for getting engaged this weekend! Wish I could have been there! At my own bachelorette party, she was there, and I may or may not have had a glass of wine or two and I kept thinking... don't ruin the surprise, do NOT tell Jessica. Don't even talk to Jessica too much, don't be an idiot.... It was very stressful. So I wasn't giving her the cold shoulder, I just was very nervous that I could ruin one of the most special days of her life! Or ruin the surprise factor any way. Any way, congrats again!

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My iPod

I remember my first iPod. I remember the first time I saw an iPod. I thought I had been teleported to year 3005. You mean you just load these songs from your computer and you can take it with you? You don't have to change our your CDs? I just got a Walk-man a week ago! (Heaven help me, my kids are going to make fun of the Walk-man one day, and I'll realize how truly old I am).
You can put an iPod on your bursar? Sold! Although I paid my own bursar, so it really wasn't that good of a deal. I also didn't have a credit card, so any line of credit made me feel like a big kid.

There she is, my little pride and joy. OSU has a pretty good size campus with zero parking for students on the inside, so getting to class is generally a 10-15 minute walk. Just enough time to listen to 3-5 songs on my new, very cool, iPod.

Well now iPods are old news. A staple instead of a marvel.

Matt bought me an iPhone for my birthday last year. It's really the gift that keeps on giving. I knew once I had smart phone capability, there was no going back. It's so darn handy!

Well the iPhone really does make me feel old. There's all kinds of things that it can do that I don't have the first idea about. I finally put my iTunes music on it from my original iPod days. Boy has my music taste changed. I was really into Alternative Rock in my late high school early college years. That music will always make me think of the good 'ol days and the endless concerts I went to, but it's time to upgrade. Since the iPhone gives you direct connection to the iTunes store any time day or night, my iTunes bill is getting a little high....

But here's my top 10 recent downloads if you're looking for something new:

1) Colder Weather- Zac Brown Band
2) Crazy Girl- Eli Young Band
3) Forget You- Cee Lo Green
4) I Wont Let Go- Rascal Flatts
5) She's Like Texas- Josh Abbott Band
6) The Cave- Mumford & Sons
7) All Your Life- The Band Perry
8) Viscious Circles- Aaron Lewis
9) Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not- Thompson Square
10) Colors- Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

They all get my stamp of approval. Enjoy!

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My Bachelorette Party

Welcome to my 101st post! Had I known that my last post was my 100th, we would have celebrated! It's been fun! I get to post up my random thoughts and daily life occurrences and you get to read and decide if you think I'm completely nuts or not. I had a revelation that the reason that people like blogs is the same reason that most people like reality TV. You get to see into the lives of other people, often times learn personal information, yet it's hands off. I don't know who reads my blog unless you're a faithful follower, or you tell me. But hey, I'm with ya. I like to read a good blog too. And God bless those people brave enough to put actual personal information out there. That's not how I roll, but some people might consider what I blog about personal in their eyes, so who really knows?

To the point. Last Friday I had my bachelorette party. It was a little early, but when you have bridesmaids in 5 different cities and 4 different states, you have to give people the chance to plan. I can sum it up in 1 word. Amazing! My girls really know how to throw a party. We had about 12 girls come. We rented a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel,  played games, opened gifts, and ate.  Check out the cake that my mom made. The lady has talent!

It was wonderful to see most of my best girls all in one place. I hope we don't run out of people to get married in our group too soon, because it seems to be the best means of getting together.

After we did the traditional bachelorette party what not (what happens at a bachelorette stays at a bachelorette!) we had a VIP booth at the club down stairs. We danced and sang the night away! I'll never forget when they were playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" and I told Kristyn that I didn't know all of the words. Her reply "Just own the parts you know." I think that's good advice for life!

So all in all it was a great time. As of yesterday it's 2 months until the big day. I have lots to do! I better get to it! Talk to you soon!

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