2 Big changes.....

First of all, Brandon and I have added to our family. We are now the proud ma and pa of an adorable Chinchilla named Chilly!! He's precious and soo much fun to watch. Totally skiddish around us kinda right now, but everyday he seems to be getting more and more used to us. He's a black velvet colored chinchilla (there are apparently several different colors that these soft guys come in) and I wish I could just hold him and cuddle him all day. Chinchilla's are not cuddlers, well atleast I don't think so.

This weekend we spent alot of time with him just letting him roam around one of our rooms while we watched him and talked to him (yes we talk to him in our silly voices, doesn't everyone??! ) I feel like he was trusting us more cause he would just come up and jump on us, sniff us out. I was laying on the floor on my stomach and he would run up leg, up my back, climb onto my head, stand there for a few second, Brandon would hold his hands out and he would jump into his hands!! Totally cute!!!

Also these guys can apparently jump REAALLLY high. He would run towards the door and like jump up the door about half way. He did this several times in a row and it was sooo funny and random. Another thing these guys do that's funny is take dust baths. They have super dense fur and with 50 hairs PER follicle, they cannot get wet with water. It could cause them to get hyporthermia. So what do they do to clean? They take dust baths. The dust is made of volcanic rock and some other stuff but they LOVE it. We got a really big round fish bowl and he can jump on top of it and go into the hole and he roles around in the dust. It's the funniest thing. They just go nuts with this stuff!!!

He likes to hop over and crawl under our table and chairs in our kitchen.

Chilly in his cage...chilllin :)

We also got him this huge ball to roll around in to get some exercise. It's taking some time for him to get used to it, but he's getting there. He's better at reverse than forwards, but he's soo cute to watch in that thing!!

Other change is that Friday I went and had and IUD (Mirena) put in. It hurt for like 1.7 minutes and then it was just cramps. We've decided to go this route because A.) I hate taking a pill every.single.day B.) this is a one time $50 and insurance covers the rest as apposed to paying for my BCP once a month for the same amount C.) we aren't planning on having kids for several years and this can stay in for 5 years. It just seemed like the best decision to do!!!

I asked my doctor about the many horror stories which I had read on the internet and she disclaimed all of them. She said most of the hormone changes (severe mood swings, stress, depression, anxiety, etc) are because there body is not getting the hormones that they were getting from the BCP. With the IUD you get a TINY percent of progesterone which is only for the Uterus, it apparently does not go into your blood system at such a high rate that BCP does. SO therefore you aren't getting all the hormones that you were. I don't think I'll have a problem like someone had with all that stuff. The first 4-6 months my body will be adjusting to it and thickening up the uterine wall and fun stuff like that, YAY! But we shall see. Hopefully this journey will be successful and no severe problems will come from it!! I'll keep my blog updated with it, cause I'm sure your just dying to know every detail :)

OK, for real this time.....

I'm back. I've been neglecting you like the plague but seriously this time I'm back. Life has been good. We just celebrated our 2 month wedding anniversary (with mexican food and margaritas no less) and things are great!!

Quiky updates:

Brandon is still in the process of getting hired on with Harris County Sheriff's Department. He passed his polygraph back on April 1, and today the detective is coming to do a house inspection. I'm assuming to make sure we have no bodies or drugs lying around :) He was supposed to come yesterday but the weather in Houston has been crappy and he wasn't able to make it out.

I restarted working for Macy's again. I however am working in the Estee Lauder counter and it's soooo much fun!! I mean make-up is every girl's dream right? So I get to play with it every night I work!! I really love it, even more so than my real job?? I would love to be able to move up in the world of Lauder and be a big wig!! THat would be SUHWEET!!! I'll be posting on here some of my fav makeup that we have as I try them out!! Here's the first to meet the blog. It's our new Double Wear Creme eyeshadow. This stuff I swear sticks to your lids for 15+ hours. I put it on one night, fell asleep with it on and it looked like I had just put it on. This stuff is awesome!! It comes in a variety of colors, and did I mention the shimmer factor?? It has TONS!! I love my eyeshadows that shimmer, and this has it full force!! Best to use a concealer brush to apply it and blend with your finger. I'm not used to creme shadows so this takes a little getting used to but it's an amazing find!!

Other happenings in our lives.....nothing too much. Just trying to settle in and get this married life down pat! hehe I mean that in the best way possible, I SWEAR!! I'm just having a hard time figuring and sorting out coming home and cooking supper, doing laundry cleaning up. Things like that. Hubs helps out which is good, but I really want to cook for him. I just have to get my routine down and now going back to Macy's puts a damper on that, but we'll figure it out. We are the best team and work great together.

Both of my Sister in laws are having babies within a month of each other!! I'll be having 2 littles nieces a month apart!! I cannot wait!!! THis should cure whatever ounce of baby fever I have in me for sure!!! :) We had Brandon's sisters' baby shower this past Sunday and it was a success!! I made my infamous spinach dip and everyone loved it!! She got alot of adorable baby clothes and the hostesses made a big basket of neccesities for her as well as $300 to put towards a crib.

I know one thing. I am in dire need of a vacay. I just want to get out this town for a while and see some new scenery!! My wish may come true if all goes well with Macys and I can get off the last weekend of May. Brandon has a friend that lives in Point Pleasant, WV and we may be road tripping it up there. I have off from my real job, just have to get off from Macys. Apparently getting a weekend off from there is a big deal, but we'll see how it will work.

I'm really also wanting us to go to Europe. I know not anytime soon would be doable but maybe for our 1 year anniversary?? We are just dying to go to Germany and Czech Republic. I want to take train rides back and forth and get to see the beautiful landscapes and mountains and scenery. Hopefully we can work something out and save up our money and go. I was pricing tickets just for the fun of it and it may not be too too bad. We'll just have to see.

Other than that, nothing too too exciting. Being married is great and we love every second of it. It seems like we have been married for forever but then we still find it funny to call each other husband and wife sometimes, in a good way, I didn't mean that bad at all!! I just feel soo lucky to be married to my best friend and I get to spend every day with him. I am truly blessed to have him!!

It's Official......

I'm a MRS.!!!!!! (and funny thing, MRS is now my initials, heehe) but yes, as of 4 o'clock this past Saturday, February 28, 2009 I became Mrs. Brandon S.!!!! I am soooo excited!!! My husband was too totally handsome and when I saw him for the first time while heading down the aisle, my heart skipped a beat and I fell in love with him all over again. I knew at that moment I was at the exact spot I should be in. I loved our entire ceremony, it was soo romantic, sweet and very personal to us. The music that we had chosen, the scripture that was read and the vows that we wrote just made the ceremony, our ceremony. I could re-live the whole ceremony over and over again, it was so magical for me.

I have a few non-pro pics taken by my cousin and sister in law. Here's the link:

http://meganandbrandonwedding.shutterfly.com/21

I'm hoping some people took our picture share cards and will upload there pics to our website!!!! I'm dying to see more pics!! Our photog should have all of our pics to us by tomorrow or saturday, I HOPE!!!

Blubbering mess.....

I think everything is starting to get to me. I started secretly wigging out last night because FI is having a bachelor party and I dont' know why I was getting so upset. I totally trust him, I know he won't do anything stupid, I totally know that and believe that. We both said in the beginning that we didn't want one, and now his Best Man is giving him one, which is totally fine. I guess all my old insecurities just got the best of me. I've been griping at him lately about stupid crap and I feel horrible about it, it's not his fault. The other day I apologized to him about it, but he understands, he knows I am busy and I don't mean it, cause I don't. I don't realize that I'm doing when I do, but later on I realize that I am, and I feel just horrible. I hate that. I don't want to be like that towards him especially with this being that last few days that we are an engaged couple.

I'm totally over it now. Totally done and over being upset about his bachelor party and all this other crap too. And this sounds soo dumb, but I was looking at this amazing wedding photographers blog, http://www.nicolechathamphotography.com/ and just looking at the pics of her weddings and the couples and crying my friggin eyes out, just made me realize, this other crap doesn't matter. Who cares that he's going out, we are going to be married and that's all that matters. Who cares that my mom is stressing me out more than the actual wedding is. Who cares that we have soo many programs to make and I don't feel like doing it, and that everyday my mom keeps adding more and more shit onto her list. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!!!!!

The only thing I care about is being Brandon's wife. I am in love with an amazing man, and I don't deserve him. He gives me more love than I could ever ask for and he's the bestest friend that I've ever had and ever will have. I can't wait to begin our lives together. I cannot absolutely wait to have a family with him and hopefully our children will have his beautiful blue eyes and wonderful laugh and thick hair =) I think I am just over come with soo much joy and thankfulness right now. Next week is the beginning of our wonderful life together. I am just soo ready and have been sooo ready for this journey to begin. It's going to be magical, it's going to fun, it'll be a rollercoaster, but we will be on it together, side by side, as one.

T-minus 10 days....and counting

Sooooo the wedding is 10 day, 10 DAYS AWAYS!!!! All the big stuff has been done. The last bridesmaids dress was purchased last night, HALLELUJAH!!! We are now finishing up the programs (150 done, 40 more to go!) and our aisle runner needs to be done and gifts need to be bought and bagged and thats pretty much it!!! I'm getting soo excited even though my mother is stressing me out. I love her to death but good lord she knows how to stress me out waaaay to much!!! I can't wait for this all to be over with and everything goes back to normal!!!

I still do need to get a card for Brandon for the wedding (i'm contemplating making him one, or going with a hallmark one, he loves it when I make him stuff, so I may just do that!). I also need to get a card for my parents and for my aunt and uncle who are doing our rehearsal dinner!!

I'm really nervous about the rehearsal. I hope that everyone pays attention and listens to what we want to have done. We ahve soo many people in our wedding party (mainly kids) but luckily their parents will be there, so hoepfully they will control their children, hehehehe :)

I still need to see if I can get brandons grandma to fix my petticoat. when I Had my bridals done a few weeks ago, I noticed that the hem was unravelling and it was all a hot mess!!! Soo that needs to be tended to, not that anyone would see it, but I would just feel better about it.

I feel bad lately cause I've been feeling like I've been griping at Brandon non stop, and I don't mean anything by it, I think I'm just stressed, and I'm gonna try to pay more attention to what I say to him. I don't want him to end up hating me after all this!!! hehe Not that he would. He does understand that I'm stressed out, thank goodness. He's such a great guy!!! I honestly feel like the luckiest gal in the world!!! I can't believe that I found someone that loves me as much as I love them and wants to be with me for the rest of our lives!!!!! It still amazes me everyday, and I just feel soo utterly blessed that we found each other, and are going to spend the rest of our lives together. We cannot wait!!!

Much needed update.....PICS

OY!! I have been soo busy, living, breathing, eating WEDDING!!! Accckk!!! It's almost here (12 days) and we absolutely cannot wait!!! WOOHOO!!! Just to let you in on some progress we have made, i'm posting pics. That's pretty much what this whole post will be!! ENJOY!!

These are our hershey miniatures wrappers that I designed. We printed them on the paper that we used for our Save the Dates. It was kinda tedious, but we really like them!! I couldn't get a good shot of it, but on the other side where the ends of paper meet, it says "Est. 2-28-09"

Our "I DO" letters obviously. These were pretty easy. I painted the sides chocolate brown and then painted the tops our red color. FI went back over them and dry brushed them with the brown. I love how they turned out and I'm kinda thinking about adding some of the pearls we used from our cake topper, but not sure. We'll see! Our invites. These babies certainly were a labor of love, but we've gotten soo many compliments on them!! I did print them one at a time, because I was worried about something happening. It probably took longer than usual, but oh well. The hardest part was printing out the address labels. I don't know if it was our

printer or what, but they were giving me soo much trouble!! But overall, I love how they came out and loved our invites!!

Our napkins!!! At first we weren't going to do the personalized napkins, but then they kept going on sale, so we gave in! We only ordered 100, and we are going to get brown napkins and mix them together. These will be for the two cake tables. Our bell ringer bell (old school teacher bell)
Flower Girl baskets! Got these for a steal at Hobby Lobby during their infamous 50% off wedding stuff sale!! We have 4 flower girls, so we got lucky finding 4 that match! These are the bags that will be for our kids table at the reception!! We just got regulary brown plain gift bags. I designed a lable to go on them. We are putting in the bag: pb&J sammy (cut into a heart), goldfish, gummy snak things, crayons, a personalized coloring book and a little toy.

Our Programs!! These turned out to be pretty easy to design, the only tedious task of it was putting them together!! I just downloaded a skinny program template from www.gartnerstudios.com and used it to help me format my program. We ordered Stardream Metallic Paper in Mars from Anchor Paper (100 sheets for $25, and they send you the scraps with too which we are going to use for another project). My dad fixed our hole punch to do two holes close to each other. My mom cut out the individual pages and then I went back and trimmed them. Then we did the bow type thing (not an actual bow tie). We really like how they turned out and how they incorporate all of our colors.
Ceremony page

Wedding Party Page

House Party Page

Our Thank Yous!

Bags I got for my BM's and also for all the people helping us out too!!! They were cheap, came in quick and I really like them!!! Ebay seller, trotter06. They will also have in the bags, their pearl necklace, bracelet and earrings for the wedding, a manicure set, a heart shaped keychain, and personalized notepad and pen,

and some bath and body stuff! I hope they like it!

Our candy buffet containers. Just a mix of stuff, I didn't care what they looked like, we need one more though!!

Our bags for the candy buffet!! I love our stickers!! =) Our Cake toppers!!! We ordered our cake toppers from Crafty Eddy and we got the "S" in 5 in. and the "M" and "B" in 3 in. We painted them in pearl ivory (which you can't really see the pearl anyways, lol) and then we used flat back off white pearls (3mm, http://www.dreamtimecreations.com/) and then 3mm crystals and glued each and every single one on there. This has been the most tedious task, i think more so than the invites, but we did them and we love them!!!

Our 160 packets of bird seed. This didn't take us long to do, i just dread getting smacked in the face with tons of sunflower seeds and having to pick that crap outta my hair for weeks on end. This was FI's idea, and I swear if I hear him complain about it, he's gonna get it!!! hehe =)

Our glass cake cutter. It's a Dur-X fruit and cake knife. These were made between the 1920-1940's. People used them mainly to cut acidic fruits, and the acids from the fruits wouldn't stain the knife. My mom is nervous about this being glass and that it'll get broke or something but I just have to reassure her that thats not going to happen!!!
Our wedding mess at my parents house!!!! I know my mom is sick of seeing all of this crap!! hehe

Good Lord....

I want to apologize severly on my lack of blogginess (i just made that up! hehe) I have been soo darn busy the past two months, I've barely have had time to breathe!!! AAACCCKK!! Anyways, sooo I'll try to give ya'll a quick run down of what all has been going on!!

1. The week after Thanksgiving I got a second job at Macys, to which as of right now I am still working, but trying to quit, but no one will answer the damn phone!!! =) That is seriously what has taken up my precious time and energy, but the weekly pocket change pay checks are always nice! =)

2. Brandon and I got a apartment!!! Well duplex really!! It is super cute and I will absolutely post pics!!! I moved in the week of New Years, and we just love it. He officially moves in after we are married, but of course he has his WWII museum all fixed and everything!

3. Christmas was an absolute blur!! It was a fantastic one though!!! Santa brought me the most beautiful Empire Red Kitchenaid Mixer I have ever seen!! I really cried when I saw and screamed too!! I named her Rita after Rita Hayworth!!

4. FI and I purchased our first firearm. He went to a gunshow and bought a .45 calibur. It's quite HUGE for a pistol, but that is what he wanted, and so now we have protection for us, you just never know what could happen. And no we don't live in a ghetto or anything, hehe. I'm wanting to get this cute little .38 something or other that is silver and has pink pearl hand grips. Of course, I only want it cause it's precious, but whatever =)

5. The wedding is coming around!! The invites were sent out The second week of January I think? lol and of course we still have some stragglers that we are getting out. We have so far invited 408!!! OMG!! WTH!! But alot are out of town, so who knows, we shall see.

6. I had my bridal shower this past weekend!! It was absolutely wonderful!!! My hostesses were amazing and put everything together soo nicely for me!! I loved it!! There were a few things that could've gone better, i.e. the grooms mother and sister could've stayed longer than 25, minutes, but other than that it was great!!! We got soo much stuff!! I'll post pics of that too in a bit!

7. My dress is finally getting there. I took it to have a corset put in and bustle and have her add my moms veil to mine for my blusher. I absolutely LOVE IT!!!! It's still at the alterations place cause she had to take some boning out of the bodice because it was sticking up, but other than that it's perfect!!!

8. Brandon and I took our e-pics back in December. We took them on the Battleship Texas!! We had a blast doing it and we love our pics!! Lol Will also post those in a bit too!!

9. My wedding check list is finally dwindling. I have made soo many checks it's not even funny!! I guess I need to regroup and come up with a new list! My mom's friend Debbie has been staying at my parents house every monday night so she doesn't have to drive over an hour to go to work the next day and she has been helping us out tremendously!!! I'm wanting to get as much done now so that the last week I can relax and not worry about a thing!!!

Well I think that is all for now for my recap. I'll repost again with some pics of stuff for everyone to see!!!!