The Apartment

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We're moving May 18.

The lease on the place we're living now doesn't end until July 31.

This is a problem.

We put an ad on Craigslist last Friday and have gotten many responses. We've had at least ten responses so far and three people have been by to see the apartment. It would be so wonderful if someone would tell us this week that they want to sublet. Let's hope that happens.

Penelope is mad at me right now. I won't let her on the bed. Bummer! I have a reason, though. She's gotten sick twice today. So she's currently sitting at my feet, crying. Baby.

Re-Pete, on the other hand, loves me. He's cozied up on the bed, enjoying the solitude. He should tell Penelope that he doesn't get sick because he doesn't eat anything and everything that will fit in his mouth. Do you see him eating toilet paper? Do you see him eating the insides of Michael's blanket? No! She could take a lesson from him.

Nothing much besides that has been going on. Graduation party and Bachelorette party invitations are going out in the morning. Both events are on May 17th. Busy day! I should really get some sort of reward from the post office for sending so much post. I know! Free stamps for life! I would certainly not turn that one down.

As always, I leave you with the countdowns and guest list that you don't care about. Have a wonderful week. :)

Michael's Graduation: 18 days

Moving Day: 20 days

Our Wedding: 54 days

# of yes: 59

# of no: 9

Blue Man Group

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My parents took my younger brother to see Blue Man Group at Mizzou Arena for his birthday last night. My mom wasn't feeling well, so I took her ticket. Here are a few of the pictures I took, as well as a couple of videos.

The pink mist is water on their drum heads

The instruments in the middle are made from PVC pipe

Countdowns!

Michael's Graduation -- 19 days!!

Moving Day -- 21 days!!

Our Wedding -- 55 days!!

Not much happening...

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I haven't had much going on this week. We're just trying to get the apartment ready for moving (packing, cleaning, etc.). I will be so happy when we are unpacked and settled into the new apartment and I don't have to think about getting boxes or making sure the vents and baseboards are nice and clean.

I knew that Michael had orientation on May 20 in Peoria, but today I found out that it will last three days. That's right. We're moving on May 18 and on May 19, Michael will be heading up to Peoria, not to return until May 22. It won't be too bad. I'll have the puppies and unpacking to keep me occupied. My goal is to have the apartment unpacked and organized by the time Michael returns. Isn't that nice of me? Of course, I also have to get up every single day and go search for a summer job. Whee. It'll be nice to have a paycheck again, though.

A few wedding things have been accomplished! Today I booked our hair stylist for the day! Hooray! Her name is Heather and her brother-in-law is one of our groomsman. He says she's really good. Working in W-town, I'm just glad that she's young, hip, and happening and doesn't have teased hair. It's great that we aren't going to have to drive out of town to have this done. I have my hair trial on May 17, which is also the day of Michael's graduation party and my bachelorette party.

Speaking of my bachelorette bonanza, that's been planned out and I, for one, cannot wait! It's three grueling weeks from tomorrow. I don't want to say what's going to happen beforehand, but I will be sure to post pictures afterward! My friend Laura ordered me an awesome tank top to wear for the occasion. Thanks, Laur!

The weekend of May 16-18 is going to be really busy for me. Here's a brief description of the craziness that will be my life:

Friday -- two finals during the day, followed by picture taking on campus around 5PM. Michael has to be at the school at 5:30, and then will graduate at 6:30. I'm heading back to W-town that night.

Saturday -- 8am I have my hair trial with Heather, followed by a mad rush to get balloons filled with helium and decorating for Michael's graduation party at the park. His party is at noon, after which I have to clean up and go get ready for my bachelorette party. It starts at four and will go until who knows when.

Sunday -- I have to drive back to Como so that I can help pack and then hit the road for Illinois, where we will then unpack the Uhaul. I will then spend the next four days nesting until it reaches a nice, homey perfection... at least until wedding gifts arrive.

So I guess that's all the news that I have for now. I will leave you, as always, with a nice update on guest status and countdowns!

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# of yes responses: 50

# of no responses: 7

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Michael's graduation: 21 days!

Our wedding: 57 days!

Less than 2 months!

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We're officially at less than two months until the wedding! Sixty days from today, I will be Mrs. Michael! Scary!

I found out an interesting piece of information today. Starting at 8PM during my reception, a mere 500ft from my outdoor wedding reception, the city will be holding the third and final night of the annual WACO rodeo.

When I read this, I died a little inside.

I am now worried that I will dance my first dance with a background of comments about barrel racing and calf-roping. I'm also worried about the drunken hoosiers following the noise to my reception. Almost as much as the noise and wedding crashers, I'm worried that our reception is going to smell like animal manure.

I've been working on invitations for Michael's graduation party this evening. We finally have a guestlist, so I addressed envelopes. Hopefully they are ready to go out at the end of next week. We still need to reserve a shelter house at the park, though.

Bachelorette Party plans are being made! I'm keeping it a secret until things are set in stone, but it's going to be fun!

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# of yes: 30

# of no: 2

# unknown: 198

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Michael's graduation: 24 days

Our wedding: 60 days

Shake it up baby now

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I am sad to report that the earthquake failed to wake me up.

Oh wait, what earthquake?

Around 4:30 this morning, there was an earthquake over by the Illinois/Indiana border. It was a magnitude 5.2-5.4. When I was taking the dogs out this morning, my neighbor came out to see if we had felt the quake. I thought he was kidding. I checked the news and found out he wasn't kidding. I think it would have been interesting to experience and earthquake, especially 275 miles from the epicenter.

Speaking of the epicenter, my friend Laura is currently ~80 miles from where it happened. It didn't wake her up either. She could probably sleep through anything, though. When I was talking to her this morning, she texted me to let me know that they'd just had an aftershock. Crazy!

In other news...

We put in an application on a townhouse in Illinois this morning. Hopefully they'll get back to us this afternoon or Monday morning so that we can schedule a time to go and look at it soon. We're both anxious to know where we'll be living. It's just one less thing we'll have to worry about.

Michael and two of his groomsmen are being measured for the tuxes today! It's nice to have this done. There are still a few more people to be measured, it's just a matter of getting them in there.

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# of guests invited: 230

# of yes responses: 19

# of no responses: 0

# of unknown: 211

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Michael's graduation: 28 days

Wedding day: 64 days

Michael's birthday: 102 days

Current head-count

Pin It Now! We've started to get RSVP cards back from people invited to the wedding. I'll try to include the updated count with the countdown on my posts (because you know you care).

# of guests invited: 230
# of 'yes' responses: 13
# of 'no' responses: 0
# of unknown: 217

Favorite Recipe

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I received a Taste of Home cookbook as a bridal shower gift and I love it (thank you, Beverly!). A couple of weeks ago I found this yummy recipe. I tried it once as the cookbook had it and again with a little variation (which I will mention). Let me know if you try it and what you think!

Bacon Quiche Tarts

6 oz softened cream cheese (this is important)

5 tsp milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup shredded cheese (any flavor is fine)

2 Tbsp chopped green pepper

1 Tbsp chopped onion

1 tube of crescent rolls

5 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled (the second time I made it I used ground sausage, which is even better than the bacon)

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and milk until smooth. Add the eggs, cheese, green pepper and onion; mix well.

Separate dough into eight triangles; press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased muffin cups. Sprinkle half of the bacon into cups. Pour egg mixture over bacon; top with remaining bacon. Bake, uncovered, at 375° for 18-22 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings.

You will love this recipe!


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Michael's graduation: 29 days
1st day at Cat: 33 days
Our wedding: 65 days

So much to do...

Pin It Now! That's why I'm such a bad blogger -- I'm a busy gal!

So a lot has been going on lately, some related to the wedding, some not related to the wedding. In an attempt to have a brief blog (for once), I'm going to keep things short and sweet.

Wedding:

Invitations went out on Monday, April 14! HOORAY! I stood behind approximately 25 people who were at the post office to mail off their taxes (shame on you for procrastinating that much!). I talked to my mom today and she's already received two response cards. You two who sent in your response cards -- good for you!!! Both were yesses. Adding that to my parents' response and including Michael and myself, there will, so far, be 8 people at the wedding. Yeah! So now we just have to wait to hear back from the other 222 guests.

I also finished bubbles -- FINALLY! My mom cut the ribbon for me, but the tying was all me. That's really all I have to say about them.

Non-wedding:

Someone got my personal information last week -- name, phone number, debit card number (if I find out they got my social security number, I will cry -- a lot). My bank put a hold on my account sometime Friday and I didn't realize it until Monday. How I went that long without using my debit card I have no idea. They bought a bunch of little stuff, but the bank still thought it was fraudulent and called me. I was so sad when I had to cut up my debit card. Now I'm just waiting for the new one. It's ridiculous. I've had this account for years and two months before I close it, this happens! Thanks to my bank for doing their job well, though!

So I guess I didn't have as much to say as I thought. Things are going well. The weather was great today. Michael graduates one month from today and we still don't know where we'll be living, but we're positive. These things have a way of working themselves out!

Michael's Graduation: 30 days

1st day at Cat: 34 days

Wedding Day: 66 days

# of Guests invited: 230

#Yes: 8

#No: 0

Can't. Wait. To. Move.

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I've lived here since November 06. I found out in December 06 that the woman who lived here before me refused to pay rent for 4 months because it kept flooding (I can see the damage in the baseboards). I didn't have any problems.

Until August.

We had a pretty heavy rainstorm at the end of August and I went to the kitchen to discover the floor was soaked. Crap. I called and left a message with the management company's cell phone, only to wait TWO DAYS to hear back from them. They sent a contractor over to check it out. I can tell them what the problem is -- the $&%# foundation is CRAP!!!!!!! The woman on the phone tells me that it was a flash flood. Great. There still shouldn't be water coming INSIDE from the OUTSIDE unless it's through the PIPES!!!!!!

This happened again today. It rained for 12 hours. My kitchen floor is wet. I keep checking my closet to make sure it isn't getting wet (wedding dress is hanging in there). It's not worth my time to call the management company.

Besides, I have two dogs and my lease says I have one. I consider it a good trade-off. Horrible foundation and drafty windows = Marie-Etta has a secret second dog.

It's Crunch Time!

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With 75 days until my walk down the aisle, I believe we have officially reached "Crunch Time."

As I type, I am working on wedding invitations. Hopefully I will put them in the mail next Monday. I realized a while back that I forgot to include reception information on the invitations (oops), so I had to make something to put in the envelopes. So now I'm cutting each and every one apart.

In other wedding news, I'm taking all of the wedding stuff back to my parents' house this weekend. It's easier to store it at their house than here in the apartment. A few things will be staying here, but, for the most part it's going to W-Town. We're also having one last meeting with our planner/caterer on Saturday. Hopefully we'll set down an order of events for the ceremony so that I can start working on the programs. I don't care if we have programs, but my mother does, so we're having them.

I've also been in touch with one of my dad's sisters. To make a long story short, my dad has 8 sisters, 6 of whom he met in the early 90's for the first time. Anyway, he wants to invite them to the wedding, but doesn't have contact information for all of them. I still need addresses for three of them, but I made a definite dent in the list today, all thanks to his sister Ellen!

In other news...

Michael got his first rotation placement this weekend! For the first five months of his employment, he will be working at a plant in Decatur, which is approximately an hour and a half southeast of Peoria. This means that we'll be living there rather than Peoria for the first chunk and then more than likely up to Peoria around Halloween or so. He's really looking forward to working there. He starts his job six weeks from tomorrow!!!

I took the dogs to the park yesterday. It is tough to walk two small dogs at the same time by yourself! Penelope is getting a little better at the leash concept, but it's still a little shaky at first. She loved the park. She barked at anything that moved -- people, dogs -- you name it. I was a little scared when she began barking at the 200lbs Mastiff. My baby weighs 3lbs. That dog could have eaten her! It was really laid-back, though.

I finally stayed home for a weekend! It was great to wake up in my own bed on a Saturday. I was hoping for a nice, relaxing weekend, but didn't quite get that. I worked on favor boxes and cleaned Saturday morning and read in the afternoon, which was great. However, Saturday evening came and Michael decided we needed to re-paint the bathroom. When we moved into this apartment in November 2006, the bathroom was awful. Parts of the drywall weren't painted and there were holes in the wall. Michael spackled the walls and we painted it a pretty color. In order to get most of our deposit back, we had to re-paint it. Yuck. Penelope was curious and ended up with paint on her butt and tail. Luckily, it's done and we don't have to worry about it anymore. It's so weird to see a bright, white bathroom after having a blue one for so long.

Nothing else exciting is going on right now and I apologize that there aren't any exciting pictures to look at. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week and gets to enjoy the nice weather (although, tomorrow is supposed to be stormy)!

Engagement Pictures

Pin It Now! We had our engagement pictures taken on March 14 and JC Penney. They came in 12 days later, just in time to be displayed at my bridal shower! I am thrilled with the quality of the pictures, as well as the low price we paid. If you're considering having portraits taken and don't want to pay a lot, head over to JC Penney!

Countdowns:

Michael's graduation: 42 days

Moving day: 45 days

Our Wedding: 78 days

Hi, I'm a slacker!

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There. I admit it. I'm slacking off on this blogging thing. But hey, I've been busy. If you read through to the end of this post, you will understand. I'll rewind back to the beginning of spring break and work my way back to today. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 22: Girlfriend Day! Sarah, Becky, and I got together that morning to watch the Easter parade in W-town. Following that, we had lunch at Bob's. Oh goodness, I miss Bob's. We ate there not only because it's amazing, but we were going bowling as well (which is located right next to Bob's). We got there right after it opened, so it was nice and quiet. Did that last? No. Shortly after we got there, the doors burst open and a birthday party for a four year old started. Not as quiet, but still fun.

Me, Sarah, & Becky at the bowling alley

Sunday, March 23: Happy Easter! Michael and I went to his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dale's house for lunch. I'm so used to having the same things at holiday meals. Michael's mom's family is different. We had chicken tortilla soup and sandwiches for lunch. It was really good. We ate small, though, because we were heading out to his dad's house for lunch #2. Kelly grilled up burgers for us. It was nice.

Following our lunches, we headed for Peoria, IL. It was a loooooooooong drive. Long. 6 hours long. We stopped off in Columbia and got more clothes and then hit the road again. When we left W-town, we were in t-shirts and no jackets. When we got to Illinois, we needed coats. COATS!!! There was at least an inch of snow on the ground. No. Not cool. Not only was the drive long, but it was also b-o-r-i-n-g. There is nothing in rural Illinois. Trees. A few windmills. Farmland. That's it. Nothing.

Peoria is big. I feel as though I didn't really absorb much while we were there because it was all new to me. On Monday we drove around (which didn't go so well because neither of us knew were anything was), checking out the town. We had lunch at my new favorite place: Maid Rite! We have a small Maid Rite at the mall here, but this was a Maid Rite Diner. Amazing. It took forever to find, but it was worth it.

Downtown from across the Illinois River/Lake Peoria

Monday night, Ty (who also lives in Peoria and works at Caterpillar) drove us around to show me the town. He showed us the riverfront, downtown, and various shopping locations. I'm looking forward to moving there.

Tuesday, March 25: Engagement pictures are in!!! I dropped one of at the Windsor Review and our engagement announcement is in the April 3 issue. Check it out!

Fast-forward to Saturday, March 29: Saturday morning we had our pre-marital counseling with Rev. Bill. We were both a little nervous because we didn't know what he was going to ask. It was great, though. Since he's known both us and our families for many years (I've been friends with Sarah since 7th grade) and we're friends of Sarah's, we had the abbreviated version. It was really laid back and we were out of there in 45 minutes.

Sunday, March 30: BRIDAL SHOWER!!!!!

My bridal shower was wonderful. There were approximately 25 ladies there. The games were fun and the cake was amazing. I also made out like a bandit as far as gifts went. I got a lot of the bigger gifts off of the registry. Michael was surprised at how much I got (he had to unload the car when I got back to Columbia). He's now excited about the registry and wants to add a few more manly items to it so that he feels he gets more gifts at our wedding.

Monday, March 31: Eta Sigma Phi initiation took place at the Allen Green Chapel on campus. It was interesting. I've been a national member since September, but still had to be initiated (it was pretty anti-climactic, honestly).

Tuesday, April 1: Latin Nerd Club dinner! Everyone was there this time and it was wonderful! We had dinner at Flat Branch and were there forever. It was nice to see each other again, though. We all realize that it could be the last time since six weeks from now I'm moving, Jon's moving in August, Christi may be moving this summer, and Lucas and his wife are having a baby. Brad will still be around, though, but LNC dinners aren't as fun when you're alone.

Wednesday, April 2: I had my final fitting at David's Bridal last night. I was thrilled because I got Holly, the younger alterations person at the store. At my first fitting, I dealt with the older woman, who all but called me fat. I realize I need to get to the gym, but it's not her place to tell me that!

Anyway, my dress looks wonderful! I was able to try it on with my shoes (which are awesome), veil (which is gorgeous), and my earrings (which came in the day AFTER my first fitting). I would post pictures, but Michael might see. He's great about it. My gown is hanging in the closet and he made sure to ask if it was zipped before going in the closet. He doesn't want to see my gown. He's so old-fashioned. I love it. :0)

All right, so not much else is going on. I have a paper to write this weekend, not to mention I need to clean the apartment. I'll try to update more often, even though the blogs are kind of boring. Sorry!