August?!? Already???

So tomorrow will bring the end of July and make it about 3 months exactly until my Wedding day.. craaaazy.. as I mentioned in my last post I'm thinking about hair a lot lately. I have several things piling up on my To Do list for Monday inregards to the Wedding planning and to desire to buy a house. I am so done with renting!!

Work has been crazy lately as well, lots of people pulled for training and a few people leaving for new adventures (aka better jobs).. I've started reading again finally. I am an avid reader and was on a role by the end of March having read 23 books with a personal goal to read 100. Now it is very close to August and I've only read 1 more book. Granted that doesn't count the fact that I reread 4 books. 3 of which I had read only this past January. I think because the rest of my life is getting more and more crazy as time marches on to October, I've started reading again. I've also become fascinated by people who blog about books. It seems like such a brilliant thing to do.. and if only I had time to breathe, I might try it out myself. I know, I know you have all heard this before. What happened to my adventures in cooking? Sadly because I live with my mother-in-law to be I do not cook really. I made breakfast a few weekends ago though. Pancakes, bacon, and Eggs. Chris helped out as well. It was a good breakfast. Normally though we are too busy on our days off and end up picking up food and on work days we get home and heat up leftovers from what everyone else had.

I think hobbies are important. I think reading is definitely one of my hobbies and without such distractions from the day to day we would all go crazy. "All work and no play make Leah a dull girl" (We watched the Shining the other day)

There was a list of things to do to destress at the back of a bridal magazine I picked up a few weeks ago. I really need to grab more of those. The list was brilliant, including such things as blowing bubbles and trying on your wedding dress.. Stress is my enemy, as it is for most of us in this day in age.. I think its becoming more and more important to take a moment and just have the be your inner zen moment. For me its when I can stick my head in a good book for a few moments a day and forget reality.

Right now I am reading "The Dark Elf Trilogy" by R.A. Salvatore. Chris loves these books and I am greatly enjoying it. It is the beginning of a very long series. I've read another trilogy in this set that was written first but comes afterwards in the timeline of the world. If you like full on fantasy like Tolkien then I recommend this series.. Anyway my lunch hour is nearly over.. haha I started out talking about hair and now I've gone off on a lovely tangent about stress, hobbies and books.. let me leave you with a few images of hair styles I'm really liking so far.

I haven't decided if I want it down, up or a mix of both. But I know I do not want a veil and I like the flower/feathery look of the clips in these styles. I'd love to hear any input!

Now I shall go back to my book until my lunch ends.. ^_^ I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Picture Post!

I am at work and for the moment at least its not terribly hectic so I though I'd try using the internet here to load some pictures that I've been wantint to share.. ^_^



I also need to talk hair. I am not sure what I want to do with my hair for the big day.



But first! A few pictures I took last weekend..

Kimi and Achilles sharing some love: 7-24-10

Chris and Achilles just chilling on the lawn: 7-24-10

Sam & Aiden in the pool w/ Mikey watching: 7-24-10

Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO  

I didn't take many shots in Estes Park .. this is one of better ones.. Since the tours were sold out.. I plan on taking more next time when we get an actual tour .. I did read an entire pamphlet on the hotel that was neat.. it told you what ghosts haunt the place and everything!
Anyway now on to hair.. there is a woman that will come to the wedding location and do hair and makeup. Since I am getting married at 11am on a Sunday this is perfect. I need to call her on Monday to setup a consult. I want to have an idea about how I want my hair and stuff though by then. So for the rest of this week I'm going to be looking at hair styles. I'm not sure if I want a full Updo or a parial updo since its going to be early in the day. So many little things to think about still..
I'm really not feeling well today so I may take a short day today but well see..

What Happened to July?

July will be over in a few days. I really can't believe how fast time flies!

I've had a lot of fun this month. I kept meaning to come on here and share everything with all of you and I just never got the chance until now. Now that I am really getting up at 6am everyday to do Zumba. Thats right, Chris's mom got Zumba for us to use in the mornings. Today, in all honesty was the first actual Zumba morning. Sunday and Monday was the first part of the dvd that teaches you the steps it takes an hour to go through and is a mild work out because it breaks it all down. This morning we did the basic 20 minute work out. We now do that one every other day for a week or so and then we can either do the weight loss routine or the toning routine. I'm thinking of trying both. Its fun and the 20 minutes went by pretty quick and I didn't feel like I was going to die so yay!

Achilles is now half way through his Intermediate training class. Only 4 more to go! We are going to do the advanced one in September. I want to get in as much training as possible with Achilles. He is already 62lbs and only 7 months old!!

My parents ordered our cake and Chris and I saw the florist yesterday. I really loved what they came up with and I'm hoping to use them. Chris's mom had offered to pay for the flowers and this is a bit more I think than she wanted to pay but we told her everything it included. We'd already decided yesterday if she doesn't want to pay for all of it we'll figure out a way to cover the difference.

My bouquet is going to be a few shades of orange, a little brown, and some white to make it pop. Its going to be really really pretty. Kimi's is going to be a mini version of mine minus the white. Then Chris's boutineer is going to be a white daisy with some orange petals around it to make it match my bouquet and the others are just going to be simple orange circus roses.
This is an Orange Circus Rose:

Anyway I am very excited. When ever something comes together for the Wedding and we can cross it off I'm very happy.

I scanned our Save the Date Bookmarks into my computer awhile ago. The internet here isn't too good so it is having issues loading a larger image - here is a small picture of what it looks like.. I am really happy with how the came out.. I realize a lot of people I know don't read but that is okay. I use one myself! We have a lot left over because we ordered 50. Counting Dates and couples we are inviting about 90 people and excepting not all of them to actually come.


Kimi and I are going to look for a dress for her next weekend that I have off. So in just under 2 weeks. I am excited! Again.. haha!

This past weekend we celebrated Chris's birthday. It was fun and on Sunday we went to Estes Park to walk around and have lunch and go see the Stanley Hotel. Unfortunately we didn't realize how busy it would be and didn't have reservations for the tours. So we'll have to make another trip. It would have been so much fun to get married there. But to elope with 18 guests is like 5000. So I'm happy with our choice. This way we can have friends and family celebrate with us. Oh! on that trip I did something else completely new. I tasted Jerky. Not just any jerky either.. it was Kangaroo.. how random and crazy is that right? I recently tried fish too and confirmed my dislike of fish yet again. Bleh. I'm trying to be more open minded and try new things when the opportunity arises.

I have to run off to work soon. I promise to try and write more often. Perhaps every Monday again like I originally intended. Now that the Wedding is getting closer and our vacation in August is nearly upon us things are happening a lot faster.

We have to meet with Joshua again from the caterer to pick our linens, We need to design our center pieces and officially book the florist. We also need to talk to the DJ and setup our music. Which reminds me I need to send my Mom the information for the photographer. We have another Payment due by the First of August. We'll be nearly finished paying for him after that!

On the Knot.com they have a budget calculator and we are dead on with the photographer so I'm happy about that.

Oh! One more bit of news. The company I work for finally started doing Merit raises again. Considering that last fall they were doing furlough days this is big news. It was a small raise but any raise is good! Chris and I are going to Wells Fargo on Monday to talk about pre-qualifying for a mortgage. I'll let you know how that goes too next week!

Ta ta!

Happy Day of Independence!

Today is as good as any day to sit down and reflect on whats been going on in my life. I haven't written in a few weeks and so I do have lots to share.

First off though Happy 4th of July! Its a bit gloomy out here and I have to work today but its all good.

I think I am going to have to go back in and try my dress on again. I may be needing a smaller size if things keep going. I'm down another 1.5lbs over the 5lbs I was told to lose. I've been trying to use my elliptical so that I can feel good in my bathing suit and summer clothes. I am to be honest, very self conscious about my appearance and always have been. I gained a lot of weight when I was in college and then lost all of it and then some in the year or so afterwards. Since then I've put some of it back on and I'm trying very hard to loose it again, but without the assistance of Weight Watchers this time around. I would love to be, by next summer what I weighed again at the end of 2007. I was tiny for me at that time.

Anywho, Wedding wise we got our save the dates out. I love them and I am using one of the extras as a bookmark, which is what they actually are. We also discussed the cake with my parents and decided to go with Das Meyer. We're all so busy in general and we loved the cake they had so it just makes sense. I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as we do.

It is now just over a month before our trip to Breckinridge! I am really looking forward to this trip. I could use a real vacation.

Living on the ranch has been a real adventure. I am getting up at 6am everyday on the dot, without an alarm. Life starts early here and it is sooo quiet at night that I just fall right asleep so I'm not complaining. We had our first real adventure in ranch life on Friday morning. Everyone else had already headed off to work and we were just about to when Buddy, the laid back rough collie, started barking at the Alpacas. Something didn't look right. We determined that the younger boys had gotten in with the girls. It was good it was only the younger males. They are only just old enough to be breeding. Chris, myself and his mom who came rushing home from work had to wrangle them all back in to their own paddock. It was interesting. Chris and I ended up 10 minutes late to work that morning! I guess I'm becoming a country girl after all!

The internet here is really sucky so I can't post pictures this morning. (the downfall of country life) but maybe tomorrow I'll do a photo post to show some more of whats going on.

We went to the flea market in denver last weekend and saw Young Frankenstein on stage in Denver. It was amazing!! I couldn't stop laughing! Not to mention that the guy that originated the role on Broadway played Dr. Frankenstein! He was on Desperate Housewives, the pharmacist, and other movies before too so I recognized him. That was a real treat thanks to my parents!

Next Saturday we are going to the Renaissance Faire with Chris's dad. I am excited. Chris's Dad is hopefully finally going to meet my parents too. Can you believe it. Nearly 4 months away from the wedding and they've never met!

Anyway I have to get going. We have to head out for work soon and Chris wants to hook up my printer.

Happy 4th again!