It's Official!

We're homeowners! 

After signing what seemed like a book's worth of pages, our realtor gave us our keys and a present for officially closing on the house (it turned out to be a cake stand.) There is still a bit of work that needs to be done on the house like sodding both yards and finishing the landscaping, but we were told after all that is done, our house is going to look like the White House. Apparently we have 90 plants going into our front yard. I just hope that my green thumb magically sprouts and I don't kill this garden. 

We've also settled on appliances finally. Our dishwasher, range and stove/microwave combo were included in the house, but we have to buy a refrigerator and washer/dryer. Since Keegan works for a company that supplies Whirlpool with its steel, we get a discount on the appliances we need! We have to order them through his work, and get them delivered, so we're going to do that on Monday when he can up his credit card limit. Hopefully they'll be delivered sooner than later. 

Electric washer

Gas dryer

Fridge with water & ice on the front! (I've never had that before!)

(all images are from Lowes.com)

I don't think I've ever been so excited to do laundry or buy groceries before! 

Now we have one week to pack up our entire apartment and move next Saturday. Technically we told our apartment landlord that we won't be out until the end of February, but next weekend is when we can get some of the guys from Keegan's work to help us out, and we need all the help we can get. I really don't want to move our couches and beds by ourselves again like when we moved down here in May.

Ready! Set! Pack!

TVT

Since I can't make a complete sentence/thought to save my life today, I figured I'd team up with Oak (who has actually now moved here) and do Thought Vomit Thursdays.

~ A guy that I knew in high school died yesterday. I don't know how or why yet, but it's hitting me harder than I thought it would. I knew Max, as in I knew of him, but we never actually sat down and had a conversation, so I don't know why the news of his death is hitting me as hard as it is. I guess seeing all of my friends who were close to him hurting and sad is what is making me upset the most.

~ In other news, we're closing on our house tomorrow. After stopping by the house last weekend, peeking in the windows and seeing that NOTHING had changed since the last time we saw the house, this week has been full of worrying about if the house was going to get done in time. Apparently our builder put in the mantle/marble work around the fireplace in a day (which makes me a bit wary, but whatever,) and has installed all of the appliances/faucets. He has also finished all of the landscaping (including 40 trees/bushes?!) except for the sod which will go in after we close. All of these things worry me because I thought the house had to be finished before the appraisal which was Tuesday, but it wasn't. I just hope our builder isn't cutting corners to get the house finished in time.

~ Good news about the house? Since we are the first one on our street, the builder wants us to have awesome curb appeal to bring other buyers in. That means we get more landscaping and a free mail box out of the deal. Yay for saving $250 on a mailbox!

~ It really irks me when I'm asked to design something at work, and my co-worker comes behind me and designs it over again. What was the point in me doing it in the first place? Just sayin'...

~ I had some delicious southern chicken n' dumplings soup today for lunch. I'm just not going to think about all of the salt I ingested because it would probably kill me.

~ If/when we do in fact close on the house tomorrow, that means we have until the end of February to be out of our apartment. I'm so glad that we told them that we were going to be leaving at the end of February instead of January like we originally planned because finishing the house took longer than we expected. However, we would like to be out of our crap-tastic apartment as soon as possible, so we were planning on moving next weekend. That means I have one week to pack up our entire apartment. Count 'em. One.Week. One week during which Keegan will be in Texas Tuesday and Wednesday. Awesome.

~ Again, if we close on the house tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday might be spent painting the dining room and our master bedroom. I don't think I can entertain guests or sleep in a baby blue room when the rest of my house is a camel color.

Wedding Wednesday - Save The Dates

So months weeks before Keegan proposed, I was Stumbling (using StumbleUpon) wedding ideas and I stumbled save the dates that looked like film strips from photobooths ala here. Automatically, I knew that I had to use that style as my own save the dates. I wanted to use a prop of some sort to write "save" "the date" and the actual numerical date on. We found a small white board at WalMart and found our photographer in my good friend from back home, Kelly. After Kelly did the rest of our engagement photos, we told her what we wanted for our save the dates. Kelly, being the artsy person she is, wrote the message for us in her awesome handwriting and took the photos against a brick background so that it was somewhat neutral, but still made our green shirts pop out. 

After we got our pictures back from Kelly, I set about making our save the dates. Wait what? Yes, I made our save the dates myself. Both to save on money and to make sure that I got exactly what I wanted (and I'm going to do the same with our invitations, but that's a different post all together.) We figured out that it would be cheaper to print three of the STDs (hehehe yes, I'm secretly a child,) on an 8"x10" print from WalMart and cut them ourselves. We had to figure out the dimensions of each one and then it was basically a plug and play. Put in the pictures, make sure they're evenly spaced, add some text and.....

voilà! 

One save the date. In my opinion, it doesn't look exactly like it came out of a photobooth, mostly because you can tell that we're outside, but I'm ok with that. I love how they turned out, and we've gotten really good responses so far. 

I really wanted the STDs to be magnets so people could put them on their refrigerators and not forget about us in the months before we sent out our invitations, so I bought a few rolls of magnet tape from Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite places in the world.) It was like $1 each and I cut it into 1 inch squares. I put a square into each of the top corners and one in the middle of the bottom side so that it wouldn't flop around. 

And voilà, one magnet save the date.  

Easy, cheap, and if I wasn't trying to do it all over Christmas, I probably could have had them done in a weekend. 

Cost breakdown (as best as I can): 

Photos: We paid $250 for all of our engagement pictures including the ones for our STDs

Printing the STDs: $96 at WalMart for ~105 individual STDs

Magnets: $7 (We got 7 rolls which were $1 each)

Envelopes: $5 for 100 envelopes, just the right amount

Stamps: $44 for 100 stamps 

If you do the math, not including the cost of the taking the engagement pictures, each STD cost us approximately $1.42, I'll even round to $1.50. Not bad if I do say so myself.

I Swear...

...I shouldn't be let out of the house when Aunt Flo is visiting. I turn into a real bitch witch.

In case you couldn't tell, this will probably be a TMI post for most males, possibly most females, and honestly, I don't care. If you don't want to know, you don't have to read.

When AF comes a knockin' I become one heap of emotions. From one day to the next, little things will piss me off or make me cry. I never seem to make it to that happy place. Take today for example: I'm not particularly thrilled that I have to be at work for 12 hours, the last three of which are filled with screaming (I don't know WHY they're screaming, but screaming nonetheless,) teenagers. I'd much rather they be quiet and leave early so I could get home to Keegan who I haven't seen since about 5:30 Monday morning.

A picture of a bunny almost made me cry today. Yes, you read that right, a bunny. In my defense, it was a baby bunny that was covering its eyes and it looked very sad......who am I kidding? I sound crazy. I promise I'm not, AF just has this amazing way of messing with my head. She also makes me think that around her visit is a good time to check up on old boyfriends to see what they're doing with their lives (just to make sure they're doing ok and still alive right?) and to torment myself with old high school friends and pictures of their happiness. That used to involve engagements, weddings, and babies, but now it just involves weddings that I could never pay for and babies I can't have yet. I guess I'm just a masochist when AF comes to visit.

If I didn't want aforementioned babies running around at some point in the next 10 years or so, I'd ask the doctor to just spay me now so I wouldn't have to deal with AF's monthly visit. She's really a debbie downer and not a welcome house guest, but I suppose I'll have to deal with her wonderful (do you sense my dripping sarcasm yet?) visits for a few more years.



Edit: I just saw a picture of a soldier seeing his baby girl for the first time and I did tear up....at work. AF needs to leave. now. Before I start bawling the next time I see a puppy or something ridiculous like that.

Edit #2: On the drive home, the radio was playing nothing that I liked, so I plugged in my Ipod. However, it wouldn't play anything that I wanted to hear either. I kept skipping song after song, and finally, my Ipod black screened, (I assumed this is like a blue screen of death for a computer so I freaked out for a bit, probably not the safest while driving.) After a lot a bit of pleading with the Ipod gods, my blue hunk of metal came back to life. I was so happy to have it play anything for the rest of my 45 minute drive, that I let it play whatever it wanted. Except anything from RENT. I didn't feel like crying more on my drive home.

Good News Everyone!

I swear, every time I hear that, I think of Professor Farnsworth from Futurama...

My pink eye, or whatever made my eye look like a cherry tomato, is gone. Since Saturday, the redness has slowly decreased until today when I got up and my eye looked perfectly normal. No doctors, no drugs, no 'nuthin, just time and wearing my glasses for the last four days. I'm not even sure if I did have pink eye, or if something got under my contact and severely irritated my eye (I'm still going to throw away that set of contacts just in case.) My right eye never got red, just a bit itchy on Sunday. I work up on Monday expecting it to be bright red, but it was perfectly fine. I never really had the rest of the pink eye symptoms such as lots of eye goop, severe itchiness, or waking up with my eye plastered shut, so I'm really leaning towards the irritated eye theory. 

I swear, no wonder the doctors can never figure out what's wrong with me. I get aches, pains, and cherry tomato eyes for no apparent reason that just go away on their own. Now of only these stupid headaches would magically disappear......

Really Universe?!

*Warning, this post might be TMI for fathers, guy friends, or others of the male persuasion*

Anyways, as I was saying: REALLY UNIVERSE?!?!

Possible pink eye, a killer headache and my period all in a 24 hour time span? What god, spirit, or Santa Claus did I piss off to deserve this?

In my last post, I mentioned that I woke up with my eye feeling irritated and super red from my contact. Well, after almost 48 hours of living in my glasses, my eye is still pretty red. Not as red as yesterday, probably because I'm not wearing my contacts, but red none the less. I'm still not sure if I'm going to make a doctors appointment for tomorrow (Monday) since it did get better today. I'll see how it looks in the morning and decide then. Thank goodness I don't have to work tomorrow.

During work today, I started getting a killer headache. By the time I left work, I could barely keep my eyes open. I had to drive to pick up Keegan from work, but I made asked him to drive the rest of the way home while I sat there with my eyes closed trying not to lets the bumps in the road bother me too much. We grabbed some lunch at B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings for you not in the know,) hoping that getting some food in me would help and then headed home. Food, water, and 2,500 mg of pain reliever didn't help my pounding headache, so I finally got in some pj pants and collapsed on the couch. I woke up 4 hours later with my killer headache down to a manageable throb, but I felt that loopy, weak feeling I always get after taking a nap, and it hasn't really gone away since.

I don't need to write a whole lot about this, but I got my wonderful monthly visit from Aunt Flo today. I'm always happy (for lack of a better word) to see her since I'd rather not be pregnant on my wedding day, but she's always a pain in my stomach...and back...and head....and you get the point.

To make this weekend even better, Keegan's leaving tomorrow for a customer visit in Indiana for three days. I hate it when he leaves. I know that it doesn't even compare to what my friends go through who have spouses/partners in the military or other jobs that take them away for months at a time, but after living long distance for all of our relationship until we moved down here, I just hate being away from him for more than a work day at a time (yes I'm sappy, sue me.) I hate lying in bed alone having to talk to him over the phone instead of being able to roll over and talk to him. When we were dating, the phone was one of our lifelines, but now I hate talking to him over it.

I know this post was really just me complaining, but hey, it's my blog and I do what I want.....and sometimes a girl just needs to let it all out right? I don't have any close girl friends down here who want to hear about my girly problems, so the entire internet gets to know about it instead. Makes sense right?.....right.

If you're of the male persuasion and are wondering why you just read all of this, you can't say I didn't warn you! 

White Dresses and Red Eyes

Warning: This post has two items in it that really have nothing to do with each other besides the fact that they both occurred today and I didn't feel like writing two separate blog posts.

Anyways...
Today I dragged Keegan to a wedding convention in the next town over from ours. There really wasn't a point to us going since we're having our wedding back home in Missouri, but we figured we would go and see if we could win a honeymoon or other fun prizes. We didn't win anything, but it was still fun to have the vendors wheel-and-deal us and watch the fashion show. We met a very enthusiastic DJ that was willing to drive the 9 hours to Missouri for our wedding for only $700. I'm thinking we'll stick with the one we're currently looking at that'll DJ for us for $400 and not have to pay for his hotel room. I'm thankful that Keegan was willing to go with me since I'm pretty sure he was the only groom in the entire convention. It kind of made me sad to see all of the other girls with their moms and girl friends, though. That is one thing about planning a wedding from three states away from home that I've really hated. I've really missed doing all of things like this with my mom, sisters and bridesmaids. Those are the people that I should be squealing about dresses and colors with, not Keegan (who I'm sure could care less what color table runners we're going to have.) Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond thankful that he's willing to go to these things with me and listen to me ramble on about things like table runners, but honestly, I miss my mom. It sucks that I can't go through everything for my big day with her.


On a less whiny note, I think I've somehow gotten pink eye. I woke up this morning with the contact in my left eye bothering me, (yes I sleep with my contacts in, sue me) so I put a few eye drops in and didn't really think much of it. My eye kept bothering me as I was getting ready for the day, so I went and looked at it in the mirror. My eye was bright red, and wouldn't stop watering. I was stubborn though, and kept my contact in. We left to go to the post office and pick up some breakfast before heading over to the bridal convention, and on the way, the thought crossed my mind that I just might have pink eye. I called my dad just to see what he thought and he gave me a list of symptoms and what to do if I thought it was pink eye. We decided to drive back home so I could take my contacts out and put my glasses on for the rest of the day to see if the redness in my eye would go away. I was hoping that something had just gotten caught behind my contact and irritated my eye, but the redness hasn't gone away yet. It's only in my left eye so far and I'm hoping that it won't migrate to my right eye. My dad suggested that we go to the pharmacy to get some eye drops to stop the dreaded pink eye in its tracks, but we didn't make it to the pharmacy in time (they all close at 5 down here.) I'm just hoping that it magically goes away in my sleep, and if not, I'm going to be a bad employee and go to work tomorrow. It's only for four hours and I'm not in contact with anyone (I sit behind a desk at a computer and mumble "good morning" to happy church goers that are renting out our theater.) I know it's technically not the right thing to do since pink eye is contagious, but I felt really bad calling in 12 hours before my shift started. I don't have to go to work on Monday, so if I'm still suffering tomorrow, I'll try to make a doctor's appointment for Monday and get some antibiotics.

*Knock on wood* Here's to hoping I'll be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow for work.

Wedding Wednesday: Things From Missouri

When Keegan and I went to Missouri for the holidays, we scored some awesome deals for the wedding.

Exhibit A:

My bouquet! (You can see Keegan's enthusiasm for being my model.) It's made up of silk lilies that I got at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. It's made up of approximately 7 stems and I paid a total of $25 for it including the floral tape and ribbon I'm going to use to cover the stems (don't worry, the asparagus holders won't be there for the big day.)  

Exhibit B: 

Two adorable flower girl baskets. These were originally $32.50 each and I nabbed them for only $8.00 again at Hobby Lobby. While they're not quite the cream I was looking for, they'll do for $8. I was thinking of embellishing them with some green and orange ribbon to match the color scheme. 

Exhibit C: 

LED tea lights. Our venue doesn't allow fire of any sort, so we have to make do with tea lights. My mom nabbed me 20 of these packs for $.99 each the day after Christmas. That's right, 60 tea lights for less than $20! 

Exhibit D:

Two sashes for my flower girls from David's Bridal. We're going to have their mom (one of my bridesmaids) buy them cheap plain white dresses that *hopefully* they'll wear again and we bought them these sashes for only $10 so they'll match with the rest of the wedding party. Since they're going to be young (like 2 and 3.5,) we didn't want to worry about them messing up a really nice dress, so this way they don't have to worry about messing up their dress, but they can still look pretty and match with the wedding party. 

Exhibit E:

This ruched sash for my sister, Bri, who is my maid of honor. All of my bridesmaids are going to be wearing dark green dresses, but I wanted them to pick their own style. I wanted Bri to stand out since she's my maid of honor, so I figured this lighter green sash would allow her to stand out subtly. It also ties in the flower girl sashes, and it was only $20. 

I also got my wedding dress while we were in Missouri, but I'm not going to post a picture of that because Keegan says he sometimes reads my blog. Don't want to spoil the surprise! 

I'm extremely happy with what we found in Missouri; I feel like we got some great deals. Now if I could only get those pesky caterers to agree to something! 

Since we finally got our official address for our new house, hopefully next week I'll have the save the dates out to everyone and I can post about how I designed those and saved money by making my own. 

Seriously Frustrated, Frustrated Seriously

In case you couldn't tell from the title, my doctor's appointment did not go well. After driving two hours in a thunderstorm and a tornado watch/warning the doctor saw me for 15 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. FIFTEEN MINUTES. Basically long enough for me to tell him that my headaches haven't lessened and I'm still nauseous all day and for him to ask me if I've been on medication x, y and z (no he didn't get my medical records like he promised me three months ago.) He wanted to increase my Topamax (my main headache medication) until I told him that my memory is slipping and I can't recall words. He told me that he *thinks* that might be from the amount of Topamax I've been taking for the last year a half, but he's not sure. So instead of taking me off of the Topamax, he put me on three more medications that are for migraines and seizures. At this point in time, I knew that I wasn't getting anywhere with this appointment, and I was so frustrated, so I just nodded my head and left.

Looking back, I probably shouldn't have allowed him to put me on more medication. I probably should have sat there until he took me seriously when I told him that I don't think I'm having migraines and I'm definitely not having seizures. I should have shook that tiny little Indian man until he understood that these medications aren't going to help me just like the 20+ ones I've been on in the last year and a half. But instead, I just walked out to my car and cried. I cried out of frustration and the feeling of helplessness. I just don't understand why out of the 7+ doctors I've seen, no one can make these headaches any better. If they are as something as "simple" as migraines, then why haven't the medications helped? If it's something more severe, why can't anyone find and diagnose it? Believe me, I don't want it to be something more severe, but if it was, at least I'd have a game plan, something could be done. This whole "wait and see" plan just isn't working, like I told my first doctor it wouldn't a year and a half ago. I know my body. Medications have never helped me. There's a reason that I take 2000+ mg of any pain medication while the normal person can take 200 mg.

The drive home wasn't any better than the drive there. It was still raining, so that plus my bad mood made me not the best driver to be around. Some choice words were mumbled to drivers that weren't going fast enough and the entire drive home, my emotions went from anger and frustration to tears and almost depression. I had a swirl of emotions and thoughts going through my head and of course I couldn't get a hold of Keegan to tell him anything (not that I should have been talking on the phone while I was driving, especially in the mood I was in.) I went from blaming myself to blaming the doctors for not making it better. Deep down, I know that they're just doing what they've been trained to do. I know that they shouldn't make drastic decisions, especially on someone who is young and seems to be otherwise healthy. I just want these darn headaches to be gone already. I want to feel like a 22 year old instead of someone who is 90, has trouble getting out of bed in the morning and can't stand up after bending over without feeling like they'll pass out. I want to live my life like a "normal" human my age (whatever normal is these days) instead of coming home after work and collapsing on the couch because my head has been pounding for two weeks non-stop.

I know I shouldn't be looking so far into the future, but I just can't help but to think what I'm going to do when Keegan and I want to try for kids. I don't want any traces of these medications in me since they've all been proven to cause birth defects. Part of me just wants to go off of the medications now so I can learn to deal with my body before I have a little one growing inside me and messing with my hormones. I know I can't go cold turkey though because I'd be worse than a crack addict, and I highly doubt that my current doctor would be willing to help wean me off the medications since he just upped my intake by three.

After talking to my parents, they agreed that I need to find a doctor closer to me. There are three hospitals within a 45 minute drive of me, so there should be a neurologist in one of them right? I think I'm going to try and find a different general practitioner to refer me to a different neurologist and get yet another opinion. My dad did some research on the new medications I was prescribed and apparently they're a pretty potent cocktail. I'm honestly a little worried about taking them since I've been having such a hard time with the side effects on my current cocktail of drugs. Who knows, maybe they'll make me actually throw up and I can lose those 20 pounds I've been wanting to lose before the wedding :-D


(that was a joke.....throwing up is the worse thing ever in my opinion.)



I'm feeling slightly better about things today. Going out with friends and their adorable baby last night got me laughing and feeling better about life in general. I'm still bitter about making a 4 hour round trip and only being seen for 15 minutes, but oh well. I guess I'm just going to start searching for a different doctor and watch my body closely on this new cocktail of medications. After all, who knows my body better than me right?

I'll Admit It....

.....I'm scared.

Today, in about 20 minutes, I have to leave for the two hour drive to Jackson, MS to see my new neurologist. I saw him back in November, but we didn't get much done because he didn't have my medical records from Missouri, and he didn't want to re-do all of my scans, blood work, and other tests if he didn't have to.

I guess I should really start from the beginning. About a year a half ago, maybe two, I started having headaches almost daily. I thought it was just the stress of being a college student that was working three jobs, but my mom eventually talked me into going into my general doctor to get checked out. After trying a few (a.k.a. four) medicines for migraines, my general doctor finally told me to go to a neurologist in Missouri because there was nothing else she could do for me. Over the next year or so, my neurologist put me on numerous medications, put me through so many CAT and MRI scans I've lost count, and three different lumbar punctures (otherwise known as spinal taps, similar to an epidural, except they take spinal fluid out, instead of putting medication in,) and basically found nothing. They found that I *might* have Chari's (sp) Disease where the tonsils of your brain hang below the hole where your spine meets your skull, but I am on the very edge of the "bell curve" so they didn't want to do brain surgery if they weren't 100% sure that it would help. While I'm glad they haven't found anything bad, it's almost more frustrating that they haven't found anything at all. It's basically been ruled that I have tension headaches due to stress, I was put on medication, and sent on my way.

When we moved to Mississippi, I started having extreme nausea all.the.time. My first thought was that I was pregnant, but after what seemed like a million tests, I wasn't. I went to another general practitioner here in Mississippi, and she put me back on my birth control to see if it would even out my hormones and stop the nausea (I went off it when we moved because I wasn't able to see my doctor to get a prescription refill before we moved.) The birth control didn't help, and again, I was referred to a neurologist because of my nausea and the fact that my headaches still hadn't stopped. I went to see him in November, we talked about my past history, he drew some blood, and told me to come back in three months so that he could get my medical records (even though I'm not sure why that took three months.) I think you're pretty much caught up now.

So today, I'm driving back to Jackson, which is a two hour drive for me. And I'll admit it, I'm scared. Every time before this, my parents were able to come with me because my doctors were in our home town. Keegan can't come with me because he has to work and if he came, he would have to take a vacation day which would take a day out of our honeymoon. I just need to tell the doctor that...

• More often than not, I can't remember words. Lately, I've had to give Keegan clues as to what I want to say because I can't remember the word that I'm trying to say. Example: If I'm trying to remember the word "blue," I would have to tell him, "It's the color of the sky, the color of my eyes..." things like that until he guesses the word. It's the most frustrating thing ever. 
• My memory is fading. I can't remember my wedding dress at all, even though I just bought it at the first of January. I know that it looks like _______ (I can't say exactly because Keegan sometimes reads my blog,) but I can't recall a picture of it to my mind's eye. The only reason I know what it looks like is because my mom has told me so many times. 
• My limbs are falling asleep so quickly now. I can't sit cross legged for more than a minute because my feet fall asleep. Also, they'll fall asleep when I'm asleep and they'll wake me up. It takes me at least 10 minutes to "wake" them back up and it's really painful. 
• And I'm still nauseous all the time. I'll eat a meal and if I think of what I just ate, or if I think of eating my next meal, I'll feel like throwing up everything in my stomach (sexy, I know.)

The last two things could be due to my medication, and if they are, I'd love to get off of these meds. I know Keegan and I aren't even married yet, but we would like to have children some day, and the medication that I'm on right now is proven to cause birth defects. I want all traces of these medications out of my body before I even think about having kids, so I'd love to get off of them now.

I  guess I'm honestly just scared that they just won't have any answers for me again. That's almost worst than being told that I have cancer. At least with cancer, we'd have a plan of attack. Now, I'm just stuck at home in pain with nothing to help.

Stay Strong Joplin

Today I watched the "Extreme Home Makeover" episode devoted to Joplin (yes I know it technically aired on Friday, but I'm a little late to the game.) They made seven homes for seven families in seven days. Pretty impressive I'd say.

I can't even believe it's been 8 months since that terrible day. Just like September 11, 2001, I will forever remember where I was when I heard the news. Both Keegan and I are from Missouri, but Keegan lived closer to Joplin than I did so hearing that something like this happened in our home state really hit both of us hard. Keegan and I had just moved to Mississippi a week before and Keegan's brother Derek had just joined the Carl Junction (a small town close to Joplin) police force in the beginning of the month, so he was pretty fresh to the team. We heard about the tornado ripping through Joplin and that Keegan's mom couldn't get a hold of Derek. Derek ended up being ok but a tree fell on his car and the house he was renting with some friends had some wind damage. We spent the rest of the day getting bits and pieces of information form Keegan's mom about Derek and the situation in general, and eventually went to bed hoping that in the morning, we wouldn't see horrible images. A tornado also went through my home town the same day, so in the midst of  worrying about Derek, I was also worrying about my own friends and family.

About 4 in the morning, we finally got a call from Derek which was the most haunting thing I have ever heard. Keegan picked up the phone and the first thing that Derek said was that he couldn't deal with pulling dead bodies out of the wreckage and that he had to call someone before he went crazy. I can't even image being fresh on the job and something like this being your first "big" job. Keegan talked to Derek for what seemed like forever as I tried to hear what he was saying and to see if he was doing ok. He eventually calmed down (as much as he could,) and we tried to go back to sleep while I think we both just lied there hoping that Derek and everyone in Joplin would eventually be ok. I really think going through the tornado and the aftermath made Derek grow up a lot. He's really matured since May and I'm so proud for what he has done for Joplin.

I must say, I'm glad that I watched the Joplin "Extreme Home Makeover" episode while Keegan was at work because I'm pretty sure I cried through the entire thing. It just broke my heart to see the town and families so broken, but it also made me happy to see that the residents of Joplin still had hope. I love that my friends from back home went to volunteer with the show, and if I wasn't three states away, I would have been by their sides. I know that Keegan has friends who live in and around Joplin who have started rebuilding their homes and businesses and that makes me beyond happy.

I'll always remember where I was when I heard about the tornado that ripped through Joplin, but I'm so glad that they have been able to start rebuilding. Things can only go up from here!

Random Weekend Recap

I'm going to recap my weekend in bullet points because I'm just cool like that...

• Friday we were supposed to get the address to our new house. We got the street name, but not the number because apparently "the numbers guy was sick." Worst.excuse.EVER
• Friday night after work, Keegan and I went out to dinner with four guys from Keegan's work to the best burger joint in town, Mugshots. It was odd being the only girl, but I've always gotten along better with a group of guys than girls. Of course, when you get a bunch of co-workers together they talk about work, but after getting a few drinks in all of them, the topics of conversation slowly turned towards things that I could have some input on. Two of the guys that came along with us were from India, and it was interesting to see the differences in cultures. While the rest of the guys weren't afraid to let a few choice words slip, when one of them was telling a story that involved a curse word in Hindi, he whispered it like it was a big deal to say. When we asked him what the Hindi word meant in English, he got all embarrassed and whispered it even quieter. I like seeing how other people from different cultures were raised, it really interests me. I just wish I could ask more questions without seeming rude or nosy. 

• Saturday I had to work from 9-5, but the gallery was quiet so I spent most of the time just catching up on blogs (I'm a bad employee.) After work, Keegan and I headed to Kroger to try and figure out what to make for dinner, but nothing seemed that appealing, so we tried to go to Applebee's next door. The students are definitely back in town and there was no parking anywhere (especially since three different trucks decided to park over the line and take up two spots each, one of my biggest pet peeves.) After trying a few more places, we ended up at Newk's which is a new restaurant that I hadn't heard of until we moved down here. It just opened over the summer and while it was super busy as well, we could at least find a parking spot and a table. 
• After Newk's, we got Bop's which is the local favorite for ice cream. While not amazing like everyone says it is (I'd put it as the same level as Andy's frozen custard,) it was a nice weekend treat.
• We went home with the intentions of packing up something in the house, but we ended up cuddling on the couch and watching "Tangled." I must say it's possibly the cutest animated movie I've seen since Wall-E which I LOVED. This wedding is messing with my emotions worse than a pregnant lady because I definitely teared up during the movie a few times. 
• I also painted my nails for the first time in months. They're currently a dark purple undercoat with a white overcoat of that nail polish that "cracks." My mom got it for me as a stocking stuffer and while I would have probably picked a darker color, it was fun to use. I love having a job that doesn't mind me having crazy nails sometimes. 
•  Sunday I had to work again, but only 8:30-12:30. We decided to take an impromptu trip to Tuscaloosa when I heard that one of my girlfriends back home had gotten 4 bras and like 5 pairs of undies from Victoria's Secret for just over $100. I've never had luck finding bras at VS, but I figured we should go just to look. Again, I didn't find anything. I swear, for a store that's supposed to carry all shapes and sizes, they certainly seem to cater to a select few. Anyways....
• We ended up in a kitchen store called "Kitchen Connection" where Keegan got three dishers (or ice cream scoops, depends on who you talk to,) and a whisk. I must say, I've never been so excited about something for the kitchen. We're going to have well mixed and uniform cookies now!  
• After wandering around the mall for a bit more, we drove over to Super Target (angels start singing.) I love this store more than words can say. I hope we get one closer than an hour and a half from us, and if we ever do, I'll never step foot into a WalMart again. As we walked by the cashiers, I head one of them tell a woman that she got a set of Pyrex bowls for $10.37. My ears perked up and I told Keegan we weren't allowed to leave without finding those bowls (we've been wanting a set for months, but they've always been too expensive.) We ended up finding the bowls and getting them for a little over $17.00 (we figured the lady had a Target card which gave her 5% off.) I also scored two bras (which were cheaper than VS even with their sale,) some undies, and socks which I desperately needed. I must say, the girls look good in a new bra (sorry Dad if you're reading this.) 

Our new bowls! 

Overall, it was a nice weekend. I was worried that with me working both days, I wouldn't have time to see Keegan, but we ended up being able to spend some quality time together. It's time like that that makes me so excited to marry him in just a few months ( 7 but who's counting?) Even though planning the wedding is stressful, it's beyond worth it to have a lifetime of cuddling with him.

P.S. the bullet points were supposed to make this post shorter, but I can't seem to NOT write a novel. Sorry 'bout that. 

Where Did The Warm Weather Go? + Recipe

For the last week or so, we've had pretty warm weather. Rainy, but warm. Today however, temperatures dropped in the upper 30s which felt freezing compared to the temperatures we've had lately. I'm used to 30-something degree weather sticking around this long. Back home in Missouri, we usually still have snow falling around this time, even up until February (in fact, my sisters didn't have school today because of snow.) According to the locals however, it's supposed to start feeling like spring down here in mid-Mississippi. So what are you supposed to do when it's supposed to feel like spring but it's suddenly turned to winter again? Cuddle with your hunny while he plays video games on his PS3 and you check out your favorite blogs in your warm bed. Pure bliss if you ask me <3

Last night I made a tortellini soup. The recipe for this soup has been floating around a few blogs, so I'm not sure who the original creator of it is, (if it's you, just tell me and I'll give you credit.) I know another blog that has the recipe is here.


Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried oregano (we put in an entire teaspoon)
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, with juices (we could only find a 14.5 oz can and it worked just fine)
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
9 oz. tortellini, any variety, fresh or frozen (we added a few more....as in 19 oz......)
3 cups fresh baby spinach, loosely packed
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions: 
In large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions to the pan and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Mix in the oregano and diced tomatoes. Add the broth to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the tortellini to the pot and cook according to the package directions. One minute before the tortellini is fully cooked, stir in the spinach. Remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with grated Parmesan as desired.

I also made some Bisquik garlic-cheese biscuits that were super easy to make, they were just a 1/2 cup water and following the package directions.  

Mmmmm tortellini (Please ignore my dirty counter....sheesh) 

 Yummy biscuits

This recipe made a huge pot full, enough for Keegan to take some for work the next day. (Again, please ignore my mess, I really need to clean....)

This was a big hit in our house, and I must say I was pretty proud of my self. I'm on my way to being a good wifey :-)

Wedding Wednesdays

Will all the stress and craziness that a wedding brings, Wedding Wednesdays is something that I want to start doing now to give myself a place to vent about annoying caterers, post cute ideas that I'm thinking about using, and most of all, remind myself that even through the craziness, the ultimate goal at the end is totally worth it, and when that day comes, I'll be the happiest person alive. 

So without further adieu, my first Wedding Wednesday:

I honestly should stop drinking the tap water around here. I noticed a few months ago that when I would drink it  instead of our filtered water, I would have the strangest dreams. Not nightmares necessarily, but just really odd dreams. Well when we got back from our Christmas vacation in Missouri, we noticed our water pitcher had molded, and it took us a while to get to the local Wally World to get a replacement filter. This means that for the last week and a half or so, I've had to drink the wonderful tap water when I take my nightly pills. Enter crazy wedding dreams. 

Dream One: 

I'm at David's Bridal with a Facebook friend who in real life has just recently gotten engaged. Now, I'm not really close with this girl, so I don't know why my sub conscious decided to implant her into my dream, but whatever. Anyways, "FB friend" is busy trying on dresses while we all watch and all of a sudden a David's Bridal consultant comes over and tells me that my dress has arrived and I can try it on for my first fitting. Again, this is strange because I didn't buy my dress at David's Bridal. But, in the middle of "FB friend's" special time of trying on her dress, I get my butt up on a pedestal and start trying mine on again. And I HATE it. Everyone is telling me how good it looks on me, but I'm trying to convince them that I can't stand the dress. Maybe this is the small part of my heart wondering if I chose the right dress and freaking out that I can't see it again until June?

Dream Two: 

This one really makes NO sense to me whatsoever. I was in what looked almost like a grocery store in their flower shop and I *think* I was trying on dresses again. Anyways, there was a couple there that was also trying on dresses, and all of a sudden I realized they were some sort of animal. I think they were a panda, but I can't remember 100%. Why would  a panda need a wedding dress in a grocery store flower shop? Oi vey

Dream Three: 

This dream honestly has me a little freaked out. In real life, my dad is marrying Keegan and I, so in my dream, all three of us were up at the alter. For some reason or another, my wedding went down.the.drain in less that 2 minutes. Like everything you could think of went wrong all at once. Jump forward a few dream hours and it's nighttime. Apparently we were having a do-over and again, all three of us were up at the alter. Just when I think my dad is going to start the ceremony, he goes "Why am I trying this again, it didn't go right last time, and it won't go right this time. This just isn't going to work!" and walks away. Now this totally isn't like my dad at all, but I woke up with tears in my eyes. I guess it's every brides' worst dream to have everything go wrong on their wedding day, so naturally I'd have at least one dream of this happening right?

Now that we've had our water pitcher back up and running for a few days, I haven't had any more crazy wedding dreams, but I did have a wild dream about having kids last night. Let's wait a few more years before those start ok? 

Roll Tide!

So I'm sure many bloggers are talking about this today, but I feel like I have to talk about the BCS game that was played between Alabama and LSU last night. I've never been a big football fan, but ever since moving down to our small town in Mississippi (with an SEC school at its heart,) football has suddenly become one of my past times. It's hard to not get sucked in when the town you're living in (and so many of the towns around you) have such pride in their school. On football weekends, our tiny town of about 24,000 people grows to about 80,000, and that's only because that's the max that can fit into the stadium. Keegan and I were invited to an Mississippi State (MSU) vs. LSU game early in our stay down here and I'll have to admit, it was fun! It's hard not to get excited about the game, even when your team gets its butt kicked. I'll be even more excited for this year's season because MY Tigers (University of Missouri - Columbia, otherwise known as Mizzou) officially signed onto the SEC last fall. Unfortunately they won't be playing anywhere near us, so I won't be able to go to a game, but it'll be fun to see how they play against teams like Alabama and LSU. I already have my Mizzou sticker and license plate on my car to ruffle the feathers of some fans around here hehehe.

Anyways, this post was supposed to be about the BCS Championship game. I personally wasn't cheering for either team since they're not my "home" team now, I was just excited to see how the game played out. It was an interesting game indeed. LSU was ranked first in the SEC and they didn't get one.single.point. Alabama played an almost perfect game with no penalties until the last 7ish minutes of the game. There has never been a shut out in a BCS game before last night and it's kind of cool to say that I watched a piece of history be made. After everything that the city of Alabama has gone through in the last year with the tornado, I'd say they deserved it.

Congratulations boys. Now just wait until next year when MY Tigers come and kick your butt. 

I Hate Waiting

I hate this waiting game that we're playing. I'm getting so annoyed waiting on the builder and not getting any updates. We went to look at the house last Wednesday and our relator kept saying "look at all of the work he's done!" but after I went back and looked at the pictures I took the first time we looked at the house, very little has changed. Sure, he started on the fence, but I feel like that's something he could be working on while we're moving into the house. I'd rather he work on things inside so that we can move in and the house can be lived in. Apparently the builder said that he wanted to close by the 20th, but I highly doubt that's going to happen now. Our relator says its looking more like the end of the month. I'm glad we told our apartment complex that we'd be out by the end of February because there is no way we could have all of our stuff moved out by the end of January if we close on the 31st. I'm just getting more and more frustrated each day because I feel like my life is at a stand still. I'm itching at work to go home and pack up the apartment, but after the 45 minute drive home, I'm so worn out that all I want to do is eat dinner, watch some mindless T.V. and go to sleep. We packed up our Christmas tree over the weekend and that's the extent of the packing that's been done.

We were supposed to have our address by now, but again, that's been pushed back. Apparently (according to our relator) all our builder has to do is call 911 to find out our address (which I think is a strange way of doing things, but whatever.) Since we don't have our address yet, I can't send out our save the dates for the wedding because we don't have a return address. I feel like this is the one thing I could actually work on for the wedding, but again, I'm held up. They're all in their envelopes ready to be sent out, but we're waiting on the return address.

We also have to wait until we get our address to order our new appliances (fridge and washer/dryer.) Due to where Keegan works, he gets 30% off of a specific brand, but we have to order directly from the manufacturer to get the discount. Ordering from the manufacturer means it'll take 2-3 weeks to be delivered compared to the "next day delivery" we could get if we bought the appliances at Lowe's (but we'd spend $1000 more.) By the rate we're going, it looks like we'll be living for the first few weeks in our house without a washer/dryer or fridge.

Don't get me wrong, I'm more than thankful that we're able to buy a house 8 months out of college, but I just hate relying and waiting on other people. I'm definitely one of those get-it-done-yourself type of girls (I was never good at group projects in school) and playing this waiting game is wearing me out.

New Year, New Home

*So I totally meant to start something new on Wednesdays, but as you can see, I didn't get to it yesterday. I guess it'll just have to wait until next week.*

So like I mentioned in this post we started the process of buying our first house. We fell in love with the house that I posted and........we got it! Well, technically we still have to close, but that's supposed to happen by the end of the month. The house is going to be part of a 7 or 8 house subdivision in another small town near where we're currently living. This new small town really has nothing going for it that *I* can see (seriously, it's smaller than the town we're currently living in, it doesn't even have a Wal*Mart,) besides the fact that it has the best schools around according to pretty much everyone we talk to. This will be good for either our future children or as a resell point later down the road. It's also closer to where Keegan and I work so it cuts our commute down by a lot. I'll go from a 45 minute drive to a 15 minute drive which is awesome with gas prices the way they are down here. 

One good thing about getting the first house built in the subdivision is that the builder wants to basically use our house as a model home so he's putting more work into it than he may put into others (not saying he won't do quality work on the other homes, but he's trying really hard to make our house look super nice.) In our contract, he agreed to put in a fence, but he decided to put in a larger one than we thought we'd get. He's also going to do a lot more landscaping to give the house more curb appeal than just the sod we originally thought we'd be getting. Since we bought the house while he was still building it, we were also allowed to make a few of the minor decisions like what faucets we wanted in the kitchen / bathrooms and what marble we wanted around the fireplace. It's been nice making these decisions and already making our house our home :-) 

Enough rambling, here are some pictures! 

Outside of the house. It now has *some* grass in the front and the start of a fence in the back.

Our double front doors. They're mahogany. 

The view from the front doors looking into the living room and the doors to the back patio (which is really just a large concrete slab.) 

The dining room that is to the left of the front doors. It's hard to see in this picture, but the walls are what I'd call a baby blue, our relator calls them "spa" blue whatever that means. 

View of the kitchen from the living room. The empty space will house our double ovens!

Where our fridge will eventually go

Our master bedroom with the doors to our TWO walk in closets! You have no idea how excited I am about that. The color of this room is the same color of our dining room. Baby blue am I right? 

My side of the bathroom with a ridiculous amount of storage

Jacuzzi Tub *squeee!*

Keegan's side of the bathroom with our walk in shower

Laundry room again with awesome amounts of storage

Living room with the hole for the fire place

The hallway with the three extra bedrooms has these awesome shelves which I'm sure will be used for towels and such. 

Guest bathroom 

Extra bedroom #1 (might be an office or my studio) 

Extra bedroom #2 (again either the office or my studio)

The third bedroom has two closets! This will probably be our guest bedroom and maybe eventually a nursery? (For some reason this is the only picture I have of this room...) 

So I know I posted a lot of pictures, but there's a lot of house! I'm so excited to move in, the builder is predicting we'll close January 20th, but our relator is predicting January 31st. I hate the waiting game, but I guess either way, we need to get the apartment packed up! 

Stressin'

It's amazing how a single day can stress you out. As of today I have to:

• Finish the preview of a website for a customer in the hopes that they'll like it and hire me to actually finish it and pay me for it.

• Finish a brochure for work. I have this most of the way done except for the embellishments to make it look "pretty" but I'm not 100% sure on how to do that. I have designer's block. 

• Put magnets on all of my save the dates so I can send those out since those probably should have gone out before Christmas.

• Get the rest of the addresses of my parent's friends so I can make all of my labels so I can send out my save the dates.

(I can't really send out my save the dates until we find out what the address of our new house is so that we can put the correct return address on them. This is stressing me out beyond believe for some reason. I feel like I need to already tell the post office I'm changing my address so that I don't miss anything important that gets sent to the apartment accidentally.)

• Pack our entire apartment in anywhere from 2.5 weeks to the end of the month. Not knowing the exact date we get to move into our house is really annoying. Also not having boxes to pack the apartment with doesn't help either. We also don't have a truck. Looks like we're walking all of our stuff to our new house...

• I have to get all of this done while stressing about paying my stupid student loans off. I'm already behind on one because I didn't get any Christmas money like I expected. I don't know how I'm going to come up with over $350 for this month when my paycheck was only $26...

• Oh, and I'm planning a wedding that's in 8 months, but who's counting? 

To sum this all up...

I'm stressed