Happy 100th post!

It is official now, I will be Mrs. Chad Graham on June 22nd, 2010 at 6pm. The bill has been paid, the rooms are reserved, my dress is on the way... well... there is still a lot to do, but the biggest things, in my eyes, are out of the way. Words cannot describe how excited I am; I am getting married!!!
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Being a teenager, thinking about how I wanted my wedding, I never pictured having a destination wedding, let alone in Las Vegas. But now, I am 24 and I have changed. On February 25th, it will be 6 years years for Chad and I. I guess when you have been together for so long people think, "It's about time," but it shouldn't be that way. Chad and I decided to make a life together before we get married, spend time together, learn about each other; with the divorce rate as high as it is, why not be absolutely sure.

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I think 6 years has given us a huge stepping stone for our marriage. Honestly I don't think much will change, of course we will be happy, but we are happy now, I guess my name will change, our taxes will change... Not much... I know that in the Bible and everyone's traditional beliefs say you should be married before you live together and such, but times have changed now and I think it has helped our relationship more than it has hurt it. You know? We have pretty much fallen in to the marital rituals, we have a bank account together (4 to be exact, that's how many they say there should be, 2 individual, 1 savings, and 1 joint), we pay bills together, he cooks, I clean, everything works in perfect harmony. The only thing we fight about is, "What's for dinner?"

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So... on June 22nd, it is a big day for me, even though you think, "It's about time!" When we go to the spa for our massages that morning, and when I go to get my hair done, and my veil put in, my make-up done, and my dress put on, it will finally be time for OUR moment; the moment I have dreamed about all my life, the moment I have played in my head a million times. I think 6 years will make this moment more powerful for us. We have been through so much together, we waited for each other, we took our time learning about each other and now we get to seal the deal. On June 22nd, 2010, there will be a live broadcast at 6:00pm on the Caesar's Palace website and I hope that those of you who don't get to come will be there with us for our moment. I wish you could all be there. It's never too late to make reservations, the rooms are only $100/ night, and you get 10% off if you mention our names. Keep it in mind... If you don't get to come there will be a reception on July 17th, possibly at Pine Lake Country Club, not official yet.

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I am so excited, not nervous, excited. He is the man of my dreams, I don't need to be nervous. My wedding dress is said to be here on Monday January 25th. There will be a private fitting with all of my friends. If you want to come... email me! I need some positive reinforcement on my dress, I am very self-conscious. : ) My cheeks hurt, I am so happy!

Thoughts, on my day off

It has been kind of nice to be out of school for a month to recuperate and spend time with family. But tomorrow it will be time to get back to school and back in the swing of things. No more sleeping in (until 9:00am), and definitely no more hiding from my computer. I am actually looking forward to some of my business classes this semester. I know I will look back at these blogs when I am all done and laugh. It seems like this has all taken so much of my life away but it is a stepping stone in the big picture of my life. It will be done and over with before I can turn around. I know there will be days when I wish I was in school. So let me suck it up and be happy, these are supposed to be the best years of our lives right?

I know school will definitely make the time fly and before I can turn around I will be getting married. June 22nd, 2010 at 6:00pm I will be walking down the aisle to the man of my dreams. We have decided to road trip our way home from Las Vegas for our honeymoon. We couldn't be more excited. There will be so much to see. We are definitely stopping at the Grand Canyon, Denver, Colorado, Kansas City (to see Hallmark), just to name a few. What better way to spend time together? Routes my change before we actually get there but it is definitely something we want to do. I can't believe in 5 short months he will finally be my husband...

So are you ready for some pictures of Charlie yet? Blah Blah Blah about life and love, let's see some pictures of Charlie! These pictures are mostly for you Bojo. We are so sad we aren't coming to Texas in March, so sad they had to postpone their wedding. We hope you guys can come to our wedding, if not, our party. I think our party is going to be on July 17th, 2010, but we will let you know for sure, soon. That's a lovely picture of me, but it's one of Chad's favorites, he caught us both catching flies... hehe

Charlie is about 25 lbs now, and he is almost 4 months old, he will be on January 14th. He goes for his last puppy visit on Friday when he will get his rabies shot, the last of his puppy shots, more heart worm medicine, very expensive kinds of stuff. Oh well, no regrets for us, he is perfect in every way and he is getting really good at some of his commands, "Sit, Lay down, Easy..." Completely potty-trained too, I haven't seen him make an accident in a few weeks. Once he has all of his shots we are going to take him to a dog-park, fun!!

He has learned to watch out the window, he loves it, and he doesn't like to be interrupted, especially by a camera. He doesn't bark to speak of. I was kind of worried about that but Chad says that most English Bulldogs don't bark a lot, soo... I guess that's a good thing. He's such a good dog, as long as he gets his walk everyday, otherwise he misbehaves. I can't imagine any other dog. Can you believe Chad is talking about a sibling for Charlie already? I told him we need a bigger house before we get another one. At least let me get Charlie through all of his puppy visits! Maybe let us get our new TV first. See... we were supposed to be getting a new TV before Charlie came around but when our landlord told us we could get a dog, the TV went out the door. So let's see about a new TV first, how about a new house too, oh... and let us get married, and go on our honeymoon, then we can "talk" about another dog. hehe

Boycott

I have been out of school for almost a month now. I struggled more that I ever thought I would. So... I have been boycotting my computer! I spent so much time doing homework on the computer that I associate school with the computer. So I haven't been on the computer at all the past month. No emails, no blog, no nothing. I just now looked at my grades, today! School starts on Monday so I guess I better check my emails and get back to blogging, back to 49er express. ugh... Life!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Chad's parents last Saturday. It was a lot of fun because we helped them decorate their Christmas tree. It is amazing how many ornaments you can accumulate over your lifetime. We celebrated with my family on Thanksgiving. We all played a hilarious game of Scrabble, there were some very silly words. My sister and I took the grand prize, we tied for first, both with 134 points. That was pretty good for me.
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Chad and I were both off Thursday and Friday so we had planned to put up our Christmas tree because my school schedule is about to get really crazy because it is the last week. So we planned on Friday putting it up. After.... our Midnight Madness. We were unable to go to Midnight Madness last year because we were at the beach so we were for sure going this year. Since we have been almost every year we have learned the ins and outs of it. Never go at Midnight because you will never find a parking spot. So we went at 3:00am. It was very pleasant when we got there, we got a front row parking spot and there was no traffic to speak of. We got some great deals at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Victoria's Secret. With a $60 purchase you get a "runway tote" full of a bunch of goodies. I spend $60 easy, their bras were "Buy one get one 1/2 price." It was a lot of fun but I was ready to see my bed after filling up on nutrients at Cracker Barrel. We were home around 8 and back in bed before some people had even got up. It is a fun tradition that Chad and I participate in every year.

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By noon we were ready to put up our tree. Charlie has never seen a Christmas tree so we had to lock him up in the kitchen. He kept himself entertained for a little while. We decided to put our train around the tree this year, perfect timing, we have Charlie now. It took around 3 hours to decorate and I didn't even have to put lights on it. I just have 150-200 Hallmark ornaments and I have them all in their original boxes, so that took some time. Nothing beats Hallmark ornaments though, they are all so pretty and almost all of them have memories attached to them.

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This year we decided to put a few lights outside. We have never done it before but it turned out really nice. We didn't do much because goodness knows we don't need a huge electric bill. The tree and everything turned out so pretty. We can enjoy it for what, 26 more days? That's kind of scary, 26 more days! What? Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. Especially when it is spent with the love of your life.

On Saturday after I got off from work we took Charlie on his first walk in the park. It was hard to get good pictures of him because he wanted to walk between Chad and I, right between both of us. So when I went ahead he cried like a little baby. As you can see. It amazes me, he looks more and more like an English Bulldog everyday. His face gets a little wider, as do his shoulders, and his little waist stays just the same size. He is so perfect. He had a blast, I think. He loved smelling the smells and meeting new people.

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Chad's parents came over the same night to see our Christmas tree. By then Charlie's energy was spent. He curled up with daddy in the chair, and he was out. Every now and then he would get a burst of energy and show everyone his skills of pushing around a Frisbee. By the time Christmas comes around I think he will be ready for his skateboard. He amazes me everyday with new things he learns and how he changes.

The Southern Christmas Show

I have been thinking since well, August that I wanted to go the Christmas show this year. We tend to go over the weekend since that's when we are usually off but this year we are going in the middle of the week. I am hoping that it won't be as crowded and we might find a few more Christmas gifts. We have almost finished Chad's side of the family, I just need to put a little more thought in to my family, hmmm? I have some ideas but I always second guess them, hmmm? Maybe something might strike my fancy at the Christmas show. We are going next Wednesday with Chad's parents which I think will be a lot of fun. They haven't been in a few years so I think it will be a great time to jump start the season.
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Working at the Hallmark store always keeps me on top of Christmas shopping, and the inevitable countdown. What is it now? 51 days? Chad and I have decided to spend little to no money on one another and treat our families this year. We are going to make Christmas extra special for every person in our family. The only thing we plan on buying each other is our wedding bands. It is going to be something special that him and I will share together forever. Mine will be a surprise from him and his will be a surprise from me. Where will we open them?
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51 more days, right? I can't believe it! 7 months until our wedding day, another... I can't believe it!

My love

The purity of a person's heart can quickly be measured by how they regard animals. ~Anonymous

Here are a few sweet photos of the wonderful other man in my life. : )
Here is one of him at this very moment.He is getting big already. I don't know who I would be without Charlie. There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams

End of a Great Weekend, Start of a Great Week

I have learned not to worry anymore because everyone wastes so much time in their lives worrying, and you miss so much of your life that way. I have learned to cherish the little things in life and let those things that bother me float away. I do what my heart tells me and I think that should be enough. : )
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This weekend was great, every little nook of it. From Friday night being silly with Mel and Lori, the air show all day Saturday, even Chad's brother's birthday party. I can't complain. I had a great time with friends and family from beginning to the end of our weekend.

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I could start with Friday night, but nothing can describe the silliness that came over all of us. Even Mel with her sniffles, she played right along with us. Just go to the Hallmark store and find "Mike," he is the coolest stuffed animal on the block. Trust me, he won't be around long, because he is just so cool.

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Saturday was a fun day from 8:30am to 8:30pm. We had been anticipating this air show since last year. We just happen to be riding by last year with Chad's brother and sister-in-law and knew we had to see it the next year. So we did. I had to work on Sunday so we managed to squeeze it in on Saturday. I hoped that it wouldn't conflict with his brother's party, and I think it did, but again, no worries because we still went to the party even though we were sunburned, and exhausted. We brought a gift, and a gift for the hostess, and we were only 30 minutes late. We had been away from our babies since 8:00 that morning. It was really hard but we made it all work. Chad's dad was able to go to the airshow with us and I think he had more fun watching how excited Chad was then seeing the airplanes. They were like two kids in a candy store. Chad wished his brother's could go but Bradley had a lot of work to do with his horses and Andy was preparing for his party so we didn't want to impose.

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It was very exhilarating, not like a Blue Angels Show. The Blue Angels are like none other. The speed they go breaks the sound barrier so you can imagine how exciting it is to see them. This was a different kind of exhilaration, these planes were a little bit slower, but it's just amazing to think that they are all more than 50 years old, and they flew in the war. We had to pay $10 to get in but it was well worth it because you were able to get up close to all of the planes and even in some of them. And... all of the pilots and men who helped restore all of them were there too, plus all the money they took in will help restore more airplanes and keep the show there every year. The people who just sat on the hill really missed out, because there was so much to see inside. Did I mention the bombs! There were bombs, that was the most fun part because we were so close you could feel the heat. It was a blast, I think we will go every year from now on, just to support all of those men and women, who make it their life.

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Immediately following the airshow we went to his brother's birthday party. Chad was so excited about the gift he had gotten for him. When we got there, there was an interesting feeling in the air, and we all including his parents felt like we were intruding. No offense to anyone, but you can help your feelings. We enjoyed ourselves and they especially enjoyed all of the sports talk from Andy's father-in-law. Around 8:30 we were starting to worry about our animals. Anyone who has animals will understand, plus it was freezing cold, and my nose just wouldn't warm up. So we made an executive decision to bow out after Whitney's brother. We were sitting there alone, so we decided it was probably time to leave. We had a great time, and wish Andy nothing but the best.

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All in all it was a great weekend, and if I could, I wouldn't change a thing. I am trying to practice this no regrets thing in my life. You only live once. What a great life I have, I cannot complain. Complaining is for crazy people.

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You can overcome anything if you don't bellyache. ~Bernard M. Baruch