New Years

As I sit in my parent's living room with Keegan and my parents watching some silly sitcom because nothing geared towards New Years is on, I think about 2011.

2011 was a year of a lot of changes in my life.

• Graduating in May with my bachelors in Fine Art with two minors in art history and textile and apparel management
• Moving to Mississippi two days after graduation with Keegan (this was a huge step for us because we had never lived in the same city our entire relationship)
• Having to find and start a new job after having the same job after 3.5 years
• Having to make new friends in a strange city (believe me, this was probably the hardest part of this last year)
• Losing my grandma
• Getting engaged!!!!!
• Going back to Canada to see my extended family that I hadn't seen in over 7 years
• Buying a new house!!!!
• And I'm sure other things that I'm currently forgetting...(because we're watching the Big Bang Theory)

This past year has been insane to say the least, but I've loved every minute of it. Usually at this time of the year, I'm ready to forget the last year and start fresh with a new year, but I've actually really enjoyed 2011. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for Keegan and I. I'm so excited to become Mrs. Wright (tehehe), to get totally settled into our new house, to maaaaybe get a puppy, and just start our own family. I'm excited to grow as a couple, to get to know each other's families better and to just enjoy being us. We're going to become more settled in our jobs, our friends and our new lives in Mississippi.

For the first time, I'm really excited to see what the new year has to bring.

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy 18th Birthday Bri!

 *This was supposed to post on Christmas, and I thought I had it scheduled to do so, but apparently not. If anyone wants to guide me through scheduling a post correctly, that would be much appreciated.* 

My middle sister, Brianne, turned 18 today! She was  born on Christmas day in 1993 when I was just 5 years old. She wasn't supposed to be due until mid-January so my dad wanted to drive to Canada to see our extended family like we always did during Christmas. However, my mom had a sneaking suspicion that Bri would make her debut early, so we decided to stay home just in case. Thank goodness we did because after we opened presents, my mom's water broke! I'm not 100% sure of the details, but Brianne Elyse was born later that day after some complications (she had to be suctioned out so all of her first pictures were taken with a bow on top of her head (before that was fashionable) to hide the bruise.) I think the funniest story of all was that my mom's doctor walked into her room with a turkey leg because he had just come from Christmas dinner. Bri had great timing didn't she?

Anyways, Bri and I haven't always been close (I remember telling her she was the worst Christmas present I'd ever gotten once when we were little,) but as we've both grown older, we've gotten closer. She's graduating from high school this year and is going off to college! I can't believe she's going to be 18 this year. To me, she's always going to be my annoying 5 year old sister, but I guess I have to come to terms that she's growing up. She's going to be my maid of honor at my wedding in August and I'm unbelievably excited for that.

Now for some pictures: 

Baby Bri

I *think* this is when she was in junior high

Taking after her big sister and lifeguarding

Not the best picture of me, but she looks cute. At my college graduation in May '11. 

My favorite of her senior pictures. She's grown up to be a beautiful girl. 

So before I get too sappy, I just want to say that even though we haven't always gotten along, I'm so thankful that Bri was born on Christmas and became my Christmas present. She's grown up to be a smart, thoughtful,  beautiful girl with a great personality that's going to do amazing things in her life. I'm so happy that she's going to be my maid of honor and share that special day with me. I couldn't ask for a better middle sister.

Excitement!

By this time tomorrow, we'll be in Columbia, sitting around my parents living room (if they haven't gone to bed yet,) having celebrated my sister's 18th birthday. I'm beyond excited to be back home with my family for basically a week and Keegan's family for a few days. As I've grown up, and even more this year, Christmas has become less about the presents and more about just being with my family. This is the first year that Keegan and I will be together for Christmas and the first year that he will be with my family for Christmas. Now that I think about it, it's also the first Christmas that I will be bringing a boy over to "stay" for Christmas, before all of my boyfriends have had their Christmas' with their families and we'd always celebrate together later.

The engagement ornament we got ourselves 

The engagement ornament my parents got us

I'm just honestly so excited to hang out with my family for the next week. There will be much wedding planning (I'm going dress shopping!), house planning (did I mention we go the house? I didn't? Well that'll be another post later on...) and just generally hanging out with the family. Bri, my middle sister has a swim meet next Friday which will be nice to see, it's been a while since I've seen her swim.

We're going to see Keegan's side of the family for Christmas dinner and for a few days afterwards. I'm extremely nervous because this is my first time meeting any of his extended family. We're going to be staying with his cousin Logan and his new fiancée so that we don't put any extra strain on his grandma, so I hope that I at least mesh with them well so it's not super awkward that I'm sleeping on their floor. I'm honestly really excited to see Keegan's brother. We haven't seen him in months and we don't get to talk to him often with him being a police officer and working random shifts, mostly the night shift. He also hasn't seen my engagement ring yet and I'm more than willing to show that off :P

I love giving presents more than I like receiving them, and I'm super excited about this year. I'm not going to say what I got everyone because I don't know who reads my blog, but I can't wait to see their faces. I love getting people things that they'd never think of asking for/getting for themselves.

Anyways, I should probably finish packing. I *think* I have all of my clothes packed, but I need to finish packing my wedding stuff to show my family the progress I've made so far as well as the presents.

I'm not sure when I'll be on here throughout the week, so I hope everyone's holidays are amazing and here's to a great 2012! 

Happy 24th Birthday, Birthday Boy!

Today is Keegan's 24th birthday, so in honor of that, I wanted to list 24 things about him that I love (if you're not into mushy stuff, I'd stop reading now.)

1. He is the most caring and thoughtful individual I know. Last week, he had to go to Huston, TX for business so I decided to decorate the apartment for his birthday and surprise him. Instead, he surprised me at the door with my favorite flowers and cheesecake!

2. He has the prettiest eyes and the most infectious smile. Seriously, no matter how bad of a mood I'm in, if he smiles, like really smiles, it instantly puts me in a better mood.

Look at that smile! 

3. He allows me to be silly and is silly with me. Sometimes I just need to let loose and act like a little kid and he'll totally do that with me with no second thoughts. 

See?

4. He'll push me to do things that really matter to me and give me the means to do them. This means so much to me, it's hard to put into words. 

5. He supports me both financially, mentally, and emotionally. Again, it's hard to explain how important this is to me. 

6. He puts a roof over my head and feeds me without really asking me to do much of anything. Even though I feel extremely guilty about not contributing to the family much right now, he doesn't ask for anything. 

7. On that note, he allows me to work at my dream job even though I'm not exactly raking in the dough. I'm so thankful that he's allowing me to work somewhere that I enjoy instead of somewhere that makes a lot of money. 

8.  He's one of the hardest workers I've ever seen besides my dad. 

9. Even though he works so hard, he always finds time to put some excitement into our lives ('71 Corvette anyone?)

10. He likes my family and my family likes him back. This was always something that I wanted when I found the one and I'm so glad that Keegan and my family have meshed so well, especially him and my dad. 

11. We are interested in many of the same things. While this makes making small talk easier, it also shows that we can connect on so many levels. 

12. While we are interested in many of the same things, we also have our different interests and I love how he allows me to be interested in my things without making fun of them. I also love how we're constantly learning from each other's interests and figuring out that we're interested in each other's interests as well. 

13. We both have the same goals for the future and can see reaching those goals with each other. 

14. He is patient with me, and believe me, that can be hard to do sometimes!

15. He's constantly teaching me new things and is a patient teacher. I love to learn, especially when it is something that he is also interested in, and I think it gives him some pride to be able to teach me something that he is knowledgeable about. 

16. He integrated me into his friends right from the beginning which made me feel really special. I understand that he needs his "boy time," but it means a lot to me that he's willing to let me hang out with his friends from time to time. I'd even call some of them my friends as well. 

17. He's honest with me. Whether it's about an ex-girlfriend or if a piece of clothing looks good on me, I know that I can always get an honest answer or opinion from him. If it wasn't so taboo, I'd take him wedding dress shopping with me. 

18. He's proud of me and likes to "show me off." He's the one who talked me into putting my artwork up around the apartment because he thought it was good enough. 

19. He's the best snuggler I've ever been with and that's something I need in my life.

20. We can be geeky together and it's ok. Lately we've been spending our nights watching "How It's Made" because we're cool like that. 

21. He's going to make an amazing father to our children, both furry and non (he said I can get a pet when we move into our house!)

22. He lets me dream big, and only takes me back down to earth when he absolutely has to. When that happens, he's extremely gentle about it. 

23. When I'm feeling sick (which has been almost all the time lately,) he's a wonderful caretaker. 

24. He loves me, for me. Enough said. 

Happy birthday, birthday boy. I hope that even though it's 8:08 and you're passed out on the couch, you've had a good birthday. You're and amazing guy and one that I'm so lucky to be marrying in just 8 short months. Even though our life together is just starting, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. <3

New Look

Hey guys,

In case you couldn't tell I updated the look of my blog. I guess I figured with the upcoming adult decision of putting an offer in on a house tomorrow, I needed to make my blog look a little bit more adult? I don't know, I just felt like I needed a change with how it looked. I hope it's not too dark. If I start to think it's too dark, I may add some more pops of color here and there, so don't think your eyes are playing tricks on you if things change a bit over the next few days.


*By the way, I honestly hope that out there somewhere, people are reading this and I'm not talking to myself like a crazy person here even though I do find it very therapeutic.....*

Empty House

Today was one of the days where I wish I could have stayed at work a little bit longer and the drive home didn't fly by. Keegan's in Houston, Texas for work today and tomorrow so I'm home alone tonight. I hate coming home to an empty house. Talking to Keegan through text/Gmail chat/over the phone just isn't the same as coming home and spending the night with him. I honestly don't know how we did it for the first few years we knew each other and the first year and a half of our relationship. I know that many people would enjoy this time to themselves, but I honestly like spending as much time with Keegan as I can. I know that my mom will go grocery shopping just so she can get an hour away for herself, but I like to do tasks like that with Keegan. Maybe I'll enjoy doing those things by myself after being married for twenty years and having three kids, but for now, I'm enjoying spending the time I have with him.

I've been meaning to post our engagement pictures for a few weeks now, so since I'm missing him like crazy, here's a few pictures of me and my love.

These ones were taken by my friend Kelly Christensen (I'll add her website as soon as she's done with it.)

*Just as a side note, I own all of the rights to these photographs, so no using these images unless you ask me first!*

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday, Keegan and I started a very big, very important process in our lives. We went and talked to a mortgage broker at bank here in town to get pre-approved for a mortgage on a house. We have had a few bumps in the road in the few months we've been on this journey, the biggest one being that Keegan doesn't have any credit. He has been lucky enough to be able to pay for school and his car, probably the two biggest purchases that people use to gain credit, with cash, so he has no credit to speak of (seriously, his credit report comes back saying +/- 0.) This causes a big problem because obviously, one has to have credit to purchase something as big as a house. In the last few months, we've tried to get him a credit card so he could start building up credit, but he's been turned down because he doesn't have credit to begin with. It's been one big frustrating circle. Thank goodness our realtor pointed us in the direction of a mortgage lady at a bank here in town that could help us out. She asked us to bring in all of Keegan's bills for the last few years proving that he hasn't missed any payments (thank goodness Keegan kept them, I don't keep these things.) She also asked us to bring in bank statements and his offer letter from his job showing that he has enough money to make the monthly mortgage payments. With this (large) stack of papers, she was basically able to input a bunch of numbers into the computer and tell the credit bureau to make Keegan a credit score based on the fact that he's never missed a payment on any of his bills.

With the "fake" credit score from our mortgage lady, we went to our realtor today and told him that we're ready to put in an offer on a house. We went through the contract that we'd be signing and told him all of the things that we'd like the builder to do while he's finishing the house (the house we want is currently being built so we have some say in what goes into it,) such as adding a fence and making sure it's wired for cable and internet. Our realtor also said that since he's representing the builder and he knows him well, he's pretty sure the builder would allow us to make some decisions on things as he's finishing up such as the color of the tile going over the fireplace and what chandelier we want in the dining room, small details that most home buyers don't have control over until they've bought the house. Keegan wants to take one more look at the house and make sure that we've added in all of the things that we want into the contract before we officially put in an offer, but since he has to go out of town Thursday and Friday for work, we can't do that until Saturday.

Hopefully we'll be able to do one final look at the house Saturday and officially put an offer in on the house. We're thinking of putting in an offer that's about $8,000 less that what the builder wants, so hopefully he'll accept it. If he does, we're going to ask for him to finish the house by the end of January (we don't want to close this year for tax reasons,) and we'll close by the end of February. By the beginning of March, we'll be able to leave our apartment and be home owners! I really hope this all works out. I'd love to not live in an apartment anymore; it's become such a hassle to live 45 minutes from work and I honestly hate living in a college town and in a college apartment building. It wasn't so bad when we were college students, but now hearing drunk college students at midnight bugs me to no end. I need my beauty sleep! I'll keep you posted on how things go Saturday, and maybe post some pictures of the house.

For now, here's the one picture I have of the outside of the house, taken from the realtor's site.

And the layout/blueprint

Kind of hard to read, but the "arm" at the top left is the master suite with the bedroom, two walk in closets and the master bathroom. I'll post more pictures with more details on Saturday. 

Have a good day and rest of the week!

Appreciation and Birthday

Sometimes it's just nice to be feel appreciated ya know? I love working at the arts council, and I they don't *need* to pay me to get me to stay, but sometimes it's just nice to know you're appreciated. My boss feeding my lunch everyday and her finding the money in the budget to pay me on Sundays has been really nice. Today though, one of the local radio DJs (VJs? what are they exactly?) came into the council and gave me a t-shirt and two movie passes just because he heard from my boss about how I basically work 40 hours a week for free. It was really nice that someone else had heard about what I've been doing and took the time out of their day to basically tell me thank you.


On a slightly related note, thanks to those two movie passes, I can now do something for Keegan's birthday on the 20th. Since I am only getting paid to work 4 hours on Sundays (and it has only been the last two Sundays,) I'm not exactly rolling in the dough. I also have to make my first two student loan payments this month so I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to get him anything for his birthday or Christmas. I had a nice little surprise though. My last paycheck was higher than I thought it would be, so it looks like I'll be able to make my low student loan payment and get Keegan a birthday present. I know it's not about the material things in life, but I just felt really bad that I wasn't going to be able to get him anything for his birthday. With his birthday being so close to Christmas, I always want to make it special and not just lump it into the holiday. With this little extra cash, I'll be able to get him something small and maybe make him a cake. We'll see what happens, I'll post pictures with whatever we do so I don't spoil the surprise.

Here We Come A Wassailing

Keegan and I went wassailing for the first time on Friday. For those of you who don't know what wassail is, Wikipedia says:

"Wassail the beverage is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide. Historically, the drink was a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Modern recipes begin with a base of wine, fruit juice, or mulled ale, sometimes with brandy or sherry added. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix. While the beverage typically served as "wassail" at modern holiday feasts with a medieval theme most closely resembles mulled cider, historical wassail drinks were completely different, more likely to be mulled beer or mead. Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon would be placed in a bowl, heated, and topped with slices of toast as sops."

In our small town, there is the "Wassail Fest" at the beginning of December where many of the downtown businesses are open late, serve their own special wassail and hope to be voted the town favorite wassail for that year. Many of them also have sales going on so people seem to get a lot of Christmas shopping done. The art gallery I work at participated (we've been a past wassail winner, so we need to keep up the tradition,) and we had Santa and Mrs. Claus visit for the kids. I snuck out of work for a bit and Keegan and I walked around to see what all of the fuss was about. The wassail was a good, but there were a lot of people squeezed into tiny stores which really isn't my thing so we didn't stay long. We stopped into a local photography studio and got into the photobooth, so I'm waiting for those pictures to be posted so I can post them. After we saw the town Christmas tree, we went home pretty much exhausted from a long week. 

I'm *somewhat* in a more holiday mood after wassailing, but still not as excited as I usually am for the festivities. I still believe that it's because I'm away from family for the first time leading up to the holidays. I'm counting down the days until we get to go home for Christmas. I'm crossing my fingers that Keegan and I will get our tree today, maybe that'll get me in a more Christmas-y mood. 

Girl Friends and Good Music

It's amazing how a good talk with a girl friend can really lighten your mood. Lately I've been in less than a stellar mood but after a talk with Keegan's cousin today, I feel much better. We spoke for about six hours while I was at work (don't give me that look, I had nothing else to do,) over Facebook chat about anything and everything ranging from my bridesmaids dresses (she's going to be one of my bridesmaids,) to tattoos. It was just really nice to talk to a girl again about things that I can't really talk to Keegan about. I love him and all, but he gets a little bored after I've shown him about two dresses.

It also helped that I decided to leave work an hour early to go get my new glasses and on the way home, I totally rocked out. I don't care who saw me singing horribly to Avril Lavigne and Maroon 5, it made me smile, and that's all that matters.

And for the fun of it, here are the new glasses. I usually go for black frames, but the ladies at the eye doctor tricked me and made me pick them out after I had taken out my contacts and they had dilated my eyes so I couldn't see five inches in front of me. They'll take some getting used to, but I don't mind them too much.


P.S. that's totally a list of cupcakes I want for the wedding behind me. Get excited!