Bikini bod, Here I come!!

Its official, I am exactly 2 pounds away from my ideal wedding weight and I am very happy about this.

The day I tried on my wedding dress, the retailer told me I was in between sizes and she would order the smaller one because I said I would work out a bunch. I went home and weighed myself, I looked at the scale and said to myself that I would loose 8 pounds before the wedding. (This was August)

Ryan and I had been working at pretty regularly, but then a trip to NY, the start of me coaching two teams through a soccer season and a very important death in my family...and I stopped working out.

A month before the wedding I realized I needed to accomplish my goal. We renewed our gym membership, starting working on our front yard, I did sit ups every morning and I have really cut back on sweets and have been eating a lot healthier. Low and behold I went on the scale this morning and I have lost 6 pounds! :D I know I may not loose those other 2 pounds between now and Saturday, but I am going to work out and continue to healthy and just see what happens.

Plus I now have a new found appreciation for celery and peanut butter. I eat it as a healthy snack all the time and I am just obsessed. I have like three celery packages in my fridge right now! lol

6 days!!! :D

Waves

So Ryan is at his bachelor party and I don't have anything better to do than to research about Hawaii. I had read about waves being really high during the winter months and that surfers flock from all over to the North Shore of Oahu, where we will be staying. I did not know that there would be a surfing competition going on at the North Shore the entire time while we will be there... and that thousands of people go to watch! Ugh.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081129/BREAKING01/81129047

This article scares the crap out of me. Not only are the waves very extreme, thus possibly ruining all of our plans to jet ski, boogie board and kayak, but do you see all those damn people in that picture on the beach!!! It is insane. Hopefully we can find some beaches that don't have thousands of people on them... but it would be kinda cool to watch the surfers ride the 25 foot waves, while I am tanning and drinking tropical drinks. lol

I guess we will have to see... hopefully we won't be bombarded by crazy surfers all over.

Turkey Day

Today was Turkey Day.

I was the first Thanksgiving that Ryan and I hosted, together as a couple and in our brand new house. I was a little nervous because I had never cooked anything to do with Thanksgiving before, besides helping my mom and grandma cook and mashed potatoes. I made the Turkey,a Ham, some Pies, homemade salsa and guacamole and mashed potatoes. My mom and Ryan's soon to be step mom brought the rest. Everything went soo good! All the food tasted absolutely delish!!

I was soo proud of myself. lol. I wasn't even that stressed (being 9 days away from the wedding). They only minor issue was that my dad and Ryan weren't getting along that great... but I guess not everything can go w/out a little hitch.

Here are some pictures of our Turkey Day! Hope you all had a great one as well!!

Nothing to say

Man I haven't had anything exciting to write about in the past couple weeks. Sorry for my lack of blogging!!!!

I have 9 days before the wedding, CRAZY. And I think I have everything done. My mom has been helping me like crazy, meeting with people in Socorro that I can't because I am not there. I think I have her more stressed out than I am.

Last weekend Ryan and I went to a wedding in Socorro. It was one of Ryan's long time friends, marrying one of my distant cousins. They had the same photographer that Ryan and I will have at our wedding and their pictures took forever!!! As a guest at the wedding, we waited forever. Everyone had waited about an hour, got all their food and ate it all and waited another 15 minutes or so before the bridal party even got there and then they had to eat. The wedding was over at 5:30. We left the reception at 8:30 and they hadn't even started dancing yet. And this made me think.

Maybe we should do some of our pictures ahead of time... Thus far I have been very traditional, Ryan hasn't seen my dress yet and I thought he wouldn't see it until I walked down the isle. BUT I am now second guessing that. Would it really matter that much if we meet at a pretty place and took some picture all dressed up, like an hour before the wedding????? Would it really jinx things if we didn't do it traditionally?? It would mean that we wouldn't keep our guests waiting as long, we'd be maybe a half hour or so later than they were and then we could eat together and get the party started!!! What do you think?

Nothing much...

Yesterday, after hiking 3 miles for work, I drug Ryan to get a marriage license. I googled it and had called the place in Grants and both told me that we could use a licence anywhere in New Mexico and it wasn't county specific. When we got there yesterday they told us that the license was only good in Cibola County... so now we have to figure out how the hell we are going to get to Socorro during normal office hours to get our license. Ryan was frustrated because he is going to have to take off work to get the license and might have to take off the day before the wedding. (Imagine that.)

Anyway, then I get home and we have an RSVP card. (People were supposed to RSVP by Nov. 6) As soon as I saw the envelope I had immediately recognized the handwriting. It was my Aunt's handwriting. The same Aunt that my family has had some major tension with over the past year or so. Her kids are selfish, awful, bitchy spoiled and disrespectful brats that don't give me the time of day. So I did not invite them to the wedding. On my Aunt's invitation I just put Mr and Mrs and I did not put and family. To be honest I did not even want to invite my Aunt, but I did. I was hoping that since they hadn't RSVPed that meant they weren't coming. I was wrong. They ARE coming and 4 of them are coming, even though only 2 were invited. lol I have no idea who else is coming with my Aunt and Uncle and I have no idea why any of them would even want to come because they don't like me and they know it is reciprocated. I just hope they don't try to somehow ruin my day or I may end up in Jail on my wedding night.

Anyway on a lighter note, My mom got my cake all figured out yesterday. We are doing cupcakes and a small cake just for the bride and groom. I am amazed at how much money you save with cupcakes, I highly recommend it!!! The cupcakes are going to be black and white (Chocolate and vanilla), like the wedding with a dash of red, or a cherry on top. :) I think they will turn our really cute.

And I have to call the florist today and give him my final number... that changes by the day.

So that is what is going on with me.

Oh and Bachelorette-ness is on Friday and I am VERY excited. :) It should be a total blast. I am mostly excited because I love dance and hang out with my girls and I never get to do that, so I should have a blast!

I am positive that pictures will be posted early next week!

Risks

Today at church the priest gave a really great sermon. Every once in awhile there will be a sermon that just kind of speaks to me.

Today the sermon was about risks. He talked about how you aren't living your life if you don't take any risks. The priest explained that when a man and a woman decide to get married, they take a risk, because they don't know what will happen. When you take a new job, you take a risk because you don't know if you will like it, if your boss will like you or if you will get along with your coworkers. He said that we take risks every time we get in our vehicles, even if it is just to go to the store, but we take those risks because we have faith.

The whole time I kept looking at Ryan and thinking about how many risks we have taken in just this past year alone.

Moving to Grants
Buying a house
Both starting new jobs
Even taking in a new puppy
And now getting married

All crazy risks. Some of which have turned out great some and some not so great, like the puppy. But we would have never had known how any of it would have turned out if we hadn't taken the risk to try it.

So, live your life, take risks and have faith that it will all turn out as it should. :)

It’s the FINAL Countdown!

22 days until we get married.

I have made a list of everything I need to do between now and then. And it surprisingly isn’t that big of a list!

It is also the countdown on our bodies. Lol. That sounds funny. But, we have started eating a lot more fruits and veggies and working out pretty steadily. I am also bleaching my teeth, tanning and eating lots of jello in hopes that my nails stay strong. All so we will look our best for our big day and the week after when we are on a beach in Hawaii. 

Side note, funny story about eating more vegetables: I went to the store the other day and bought a ton of veggies and fruits. One of which was celery. I don’t particularly care for celery because of its stringy-ness, but I am on a peanut butter kick so I thought it would be a good snack while I am working to eat celery and peanut butter. Tuesday I made us some stew for dinner. It is a common meal I make in the winter months and I usually throw in our favorite ingredient, Green Chile in it, but this time I threw in a ton of veggies, including some of the celery, but I forgot to put in the usual green chile. Yesterday I was talking to Ryan about how good my stew was and then I realized that I had forgotten the chile. Ryan goes, no you didn’t, there was green chile in there. And I say, no I swear I forgot to put it in. And then Ryan goes, but I remember something green being in there. And I crack up laughing because it was the celery. Lol I thought it was absolutely hilarious, but he didn’t. lol


Anyway, my list : We still need to get our marriage license, I need to pick up my altered dress and my veil, which I plan to do next Friday. We meet with our priest for the last time next Saturday. My mom is working on my cake, I need 2 more presents for my bridal party and to put all the presents together for the rehearsal dinner. And I need to make sure my furry children get all their shots so they can be boarded, but I already called and reserved their stay yesterday. (I am a little nervous they have never ever been boarded.)

That isn’t a bad list, right? 22 days… I am pretty sure I can get it all done.

Sometimes a song can touch a nerve….

Wednesday night was an emotional evening for me.

My mom had called me earlier in the day to let me know that their next door neighbor in Socorro had died in a tragic motorcycle accident. We don’t talk to those neighbors anymore, but at one point in time we were pretty close to them, in fact they used to babysit me when I was little and I am the same age as their son. I encouraged my parents to go over and give their condolences to the wife and son, even though they may not have always gotten along. Then later yesterday evening I got a phone call from Ryan’s mom. She said called to tell us that (Ryan’s brother) Patrick’s girlfriend, Katheryn’s grandpa was dying and that they were driving up to Socorro from Las Cruces to try and make it in time to see him before he passed. I sent some encouraging and apologetic texts to Katheryn and then we sat down to watch some evening TV.

We have Netflix so we have been catching up on The Office seasons that we have missed. After a couple episodes I realized that the CMA music awards were on. My mom had called to tell me something and started talking about Brad Paisley’s song Waiting on a Woman. The song came out around the time when my grandma was real sick and I related to it. Her husband had died 8 years before her and they had been married for over 50 years. In the song it says, ‘Somewhere statistics show the man is always the first go, and that makes sense because I know she won’t be ready.’ It goes on to say that he will find a bench somewhere in heaven, if they have any, ‘ I hope she takes her time, because I don’t mind, waiting on a woman, honey take your time because I don’t mind, waiting on a woman.”

My mom said that she had heard the song somewhere and it made her cry. Just then, Brad Paisley came on the CMA music awards to perform that song. I hung up with my mom so we could each listen to his performance. I haven’t really cried lately, but sure enough as soon as the above mentioned part of the song came on I burst into tears. It was like this faucet that I couldn’t shut off… and as soon as I was ready to turn off the faucet, Carrie Underwood, whom I don’t particularly care for, but I like her new song, came on and sang her new sad song… even she was crying at the end of it. I probably balled for about a half hour and I am betting my mom did the same.

I am not sure whether it was just hearing some more bad news about death or it was just all my pent up emotions coming out or maybe it was both…

SNOW

As you can see in my last post... we got our first snow of the season last night!

Ironically, we used our fireplace for the first time last night and it happened to be the same night that we got our first snow.



I was very excited about the snow, but Ryan wasn't because our yard work gets put on hold because of the frozen ground.

I was mostly excited because Bailey has never experienced snow before. We got her a little over a year ago, but it didn't snow in Socorro last winter. When I let her out this morning I picked up my camera to take pictures of her first snow.

She loved it, just as I expected. She knew it was edible and she went around the whole yard smelling it all. When she took a bite she would get all excited and run around like a crazy dog. lol. I tried to snap a picture every time she got all excited, but couldn't quite get one. The best is a picture of her looking at me right after she ate some snow and she still had snow on her nose. lol

Yard Work

So it turns out that tearing up grass is not as easy as it sounds. We spent Saturday evening and most of Sunday digging up our grass and it was a lot harder than what we expected. lol Even with some help from the bored 12 year old next door, this is all we got done.




(FYI, the grass is on the left and what we dug up is on the right.)

It is ok though, because we started it. We got a decent amount of work done and all we have to do is finish it by Thanksgiving, which I think is Totally doable.

We also took our our electric walkway lights along the sidewalk/walkway that goes up to our front door. We want to put solar ones in instead... plus the electric ones we had were kind of broken and beat up.

On Saturday we went and picked out our gravel... a pale redish color. It is going to look really nice. I just can't wait to get all the stupid grass all dug up!!

Oh yes and as we started digging on Sunday I looked at Ryan and told him that if the old homeowners saw us, the wife would totally cry because she loved her grass and garden and everything. Sure enough, a couple hours into our digging they drove by. (Their kids are still friends with all the kids on the block so they are often driving by dropping kids off or picking kids up.) Of course, when they saw us they had to stop AND get out. The first thing out of the wife's mouth was, You are going to make me cry!!! Then the husband reminded her it wasn't her house anymore... Aye.

Anyway, I think even the old homeowners will approve once we are all said and done! :)

1 Month... actuallly less than one month

Yesterday was exactly one month until our wedding. Isn't that insane!!

I can't believe we have been engaged for 9 months! And I have been planning this wonderful day that is now just less than a month away!

Today I purchased gifts for my bridal party and for our parents.

This weekend we have to call our DJ to talk about our wedding songs

I still have to buy a cupcake stand and ring bearer pillows and flower girl baskets.

We meet with our priest one more time, 2 weeks before the wedding.

And I think that is IT! Whoo Hoo.... I can't wait until Dec. 6, just 4 weeks and 1 day away!!!

Thanksgiving

I feel totally grown up. lol

For the first time ever, in our brand new home, Ryan and I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year for our families.

For 20 some years my family would go to my grandma's house for the holidays. Well, her house sold the same week she passed away. And I think it is time for some new traditions.

Ryan and I have a pretty large house, with plenty of room for family get togethers.
So I decided that having Thanksgiving here would be a really great new tradition to start. :)

In preparation we are going to try and get our front yard in gear before our families comes. We are planning on tearing up our barely growing grass out front and putting in gravel. There is already gray gravel on more than half of our front yard, along with some xeriscaped/low water plants. I think it will look really good to get a different color gravel put in where the grass was. Anyway that is our new house project before Thanksgiving and I will be sure to take pictures once we get the gravel in and some Thanksgiving pictures too! :)

I just hope it doesn't snow and prevent people from coming!!

An Office kind of Friday

One of the best shows on earth. :) It is a long clip, but TOTALLY worth it. ENJOY.

My News

I am going to have a new baby cousin! :)

It is no secret that I love my Uncle Pete to death!! He is my Godfather and is like my second dad! Last year he married the most amazing woman ever. I am not just saying this, I kid you not, this lady is a saint. She is nice, kind and very loving. The most special part is that she willing took in my grandma into her house and took care of her for the whole first year of her marriage. She loved and treated my grandma like she was her very own mother or maybe even better and I cannot even explain how amazing that is to me. She is like an angel.

Anyway, before my grandma got sick they had decided to try and have a baby. Trial after tribulation they finally decided to get in vitro. There is a big process with in vitro and you have to follow a strict schedule. Ironically, the day they implanted the eggs was the very day that we laid my grandma to rest. They couldn't change the appointment because of the process, but I think it worked out perfectly.

They found out a couple weeks later that they were indeed pregnant, but didn't know how many they were going to have. They had implanted 3 eggs, but the Dr.'s didn't think one was taking and just implanted it anyway for odds sake. They had a 50/50 chance of having twins.

Today they went to the Dr. to see how many heartbeats there were. I think (I know) they had secretly hoped for 2, but there was just one heartbeat. A heartbeat of a beautiful new life that in 8 months will be coming into this world. A new addition to this morning family that ironically joined this family the same day that the family said their last goodbyes to another family member.

I am soo excited for them and for my family. I know this baby is a blessing from above and that my grandma had a hand in making it all happen. This baby is going to be an amazing soul because it is has some awesome parents and some great genes.

Welcome Baby Conticelli, I can't wait to meet you!

News

I have some exciting news I am going to blog about later today. It isnt my news, but it is someone in my family's news and I am VERY excited about it. We won't find out the news until later this morning and I won't be able to write about it until I get back from work... sooo stay tuned! :D And don't forget to Vote! Happy Election Day!

Halloween

This Halloween was actually really fun. We didn't do much, but I had a really great couple days.

I didn't dress up as Sarah Palin because my wig was too dark, but I did still wear the wig. What was I for Halloween? I was fierce. Not a person, an adjective. lol




I dressed up at work and then put on all black with black heels to hand out candy at our house. We had SOO many trick or treaters at our house, it was INSANE and I loved it! I grew up in a rural area where we were lucky if we even had 1 trick or treater, so having a ton was a lot of fun for me! I went through over a pound of candy in 2 hours!! Then I shut the lights.

Eric, my cat, was also a big hit for the trick or treaters. I dressed him in Bailey's Bumble Bee costume from last year ( She has grown SOO much in a year, it is crazy!) and he sat by the front door and stared at all the kids.



The next day was our next door neighbor's kiddy Halloween party. After our soccer game I asked them if they needed any help preparing for their party. I actually didn't expect them to say yes, but the mom did say she could use some help. She asked if I could make some rice crispy treats because she didnt think she would have time to make them. She ended up sending her 9 year old daughter, Breanna over with all of the ingredients and we made 3 batches of rice crispy treats! The mom sent over some food coloring to make them orange... the first one looked like a pumpkin to me so it became a pumpkin. Breanna had so much fun with that one I went over board on creativity. The next 2 batches of rice crispies became a big spider and my personal fav, a bat. We took pictures, but they aren't showing up in the camera...The ghost of Halloween took them away I guess. I had so much fun hanging out with Breanna that day, she is a very good kid. She is smart, polite and just fun to be around. I hope that if Ryan and I ever have kids that they will be as good of a kid as she is.

Anyway Ryan and I dressed up for their Halloween party. I was an old man for the second year in a row and he was a police officer for the third year in a row. lol. We only stayed for about an hour... too many kids for me. We ate some food and headed home for the end of Halloween until next year.

Hope you all had a good Halloween as well! :)