Short and sweet

For my 3 readers...I'm so sorry for my absence. I really should write more to keep reeling you guys in. In a nutshell..I've had a lot going on lately! I am finishing up with school (1 final left and then I have my BSN...onto the MSN WOOHOO!), we are closing on our house 1 week from Wednesday, and I have my first bridal shower this Saturday. Throw in working and continuing to plan for the wedding...and you can imagine! So tonight is a short apology for my absence with a promise for 2 blogs in the near future covering my first bridal shower and pictures of the new house once we close on Wednesday! I hope everyone has a great week!!

It's Official

     Well folks, it's official. Jason and I put an offer on the house we fell in love with on Sunday, the people countered back and all terms were agreed upon this evening. I don't think I can officially say we are "home owners" at this point because we still have to go through home inspection, termite inspection, final appraisal, and closing before we can call it "home", but we are definitely closer. EDC (estimated date of closing) is December 17, 2010.
    I am not as stressed at this point because we thought it out and prayed about it. The house is also $20,000 less than the top of our budget which is FABULOUS. Now I am stressing about what I'm going to put where, what colors I'm going to paint, and how I'm going to fill a 1900 square foot house when we have about 3 pieces of furniture to our name...two of which are tv's. Guess we and the tv's will sit alone in the big ole' house for a while! Ha..just kidding. My parents and other family members have already been more than generous in offering up furniture to help us start our humble abode.
     I do not have pictures right now, but hopefully we will be able to go back this weekend and I can take some "before" pictures. I will definitely need some opinions from you experienced house decorators when I start trying to spruce up everything. I hope everyone has a great week!

The toll of starting a life

Everyone told us it would be hard. There would be days where things would not always go as planned and there would be stress. Try magnifying that times 1 bazillion and that's how I feel right now. It's 4:27 am and here I lay, after being awake for almost two hours with horrendous heartburn and nausea stressing about what you ask... Buying our first house. We think we have found "the one" and I'm so excited, but a ball of nerves at the same time. This house is perfect for us. It's 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, formal dining, formal living, den, office, tons of closet space, and it has a shop in the back already which was the major selling point for J. We absolutely love it. I stood looking down the hall from the formal living room and could see my future babies running down the hall in their Christmas pajamas... Yes, its that perfect. Why am I scared then you may ask? I don't know!!! My dear cousin whom I trust in these matters tells me that it's normal to feel sick and lose sleep and I do think that's what it is. I know we can afford it but I guess it's kind of fearing the unknown. I don't have pictures right now since the deal hasn't even started rolling ( I said I wanted to sleep on it... Wonder if this counts?) Hopefully we will have something started by this evening and I can share more details. 
    Until then... Fingers crossed and tums in pocket! 

Registry

    Hey everyone! Sorry I have been such a slacker lately. Between school, work, and MSU football, we haven't had much free time. This past weekend we went to Starkville for the Georgia game. Mom took pictures (my camera died), but it was so hot, they all turned out terrible..you know the types of pictures with sweat-matted pieces of hair on your forehead. Needless to say, I will not be adding any to the blog today. So sorry.
     Anyways, today I am blogging to ask your help with gift registry. Tonight, Jason and I have been looking at different stores online and what they have on their checklists as "must haves" for your registry. We are a little clueless in this department and thought maybe some of you could give us feedback on what you found most helpful and most useless when it came to wedding gifts. I am a big cooker, so I am thinking kitchen appliances and cookware are going to be most important to me. I also LOVE decorative platters and those type things, but they are just so expensive at some of the major stores. Also, when do you register? (We have about 8 months until W-Day.) Target and Bed Bath and Beyond both say to get 8-12 piece place settings...is that too much? FYI we are not planning on registering for fine china, just really cute everyday things that we can accent with a few nice pieces..totally Jason's idea ;)Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!
    That's about all for tonight. We have another busy week of school and work coming up followed by another full weekend in Starkvegas. The weekend of October 9 I am finally going wedding dress shopping. We had it planned for September 18, but Liza made the travel squad (her and her partner were the only freshman..YAY for them), so we had to reschedule. We have appointments at David's Bridal and Low's so, fingers crossed, I will find THE dress that day since I am technically behind. Happy work week everyone!

Go State**Go State!

As many of you know my sweet little sister is a co-ed cheerleader at Mississippi State University. My house has always been a house divided--my mom graduated from State and my Dad from Ole Miss. I was brought up going to Ole Miss games, therefore, have pretty much always been an Ole Miss fan. Jason and my mom are both HUGE State fans. Liza started throwing around the idea of going to MSU during her junior year and really got serious about cheerleading her senior year. Even though my dad and myself had always been Ole Miss fans, when she made the squad at State we were converted. We have season tickets (on the 10 yard line, on the front row) and even have cowbells and maroon shirts!  It has been such a blast watching her cheer these first two games. She is also going to get to travel to Baton Rouge for the MSU vs. LSU game this weekend...my parents are going, but Jason and I are staying behind. I have tons of pictures to share from the first two games!  Enjoy!!

MSU vs. Memphis "White out"

Never thought I would see my Dad in a MSU hat!

Me, Rachel, and Liza--Rachel cheers on the All-Girl squad

On the sidelines

MSU vs. Auburn--"True Maroon"

Co-ed Squad

Liza with her friends Sydney, Jud, and Rachel

Liza and her partner, Jud

Action shot!

                   

Sidelines                                      

On the jumbotron!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

I need some thoughts and comments...

Sorry I have slacked the past few days...school has consumed my life and today was actually the first day I could actually think/talk about wedding stuff. My mom and I were discussing cakes/favors/flowers today and a pressing question came up. We are expecting anywhere from 150-200 people at the wedding (we both have really big families), so the cake issue is kind of big, no pun intended. My mom had the idea of having a smaller, two or three tier cake for us to cut and serve, take pictures of, blah blah blah and then have the cake person make sheet cake, same flavor and icing, and have it already cut up and ready to serve in the back when we run out of the "for show" cake. I have read on the "Cake Boss" website and Buddy lists this as one of his wedding options. What do you all think? Is it tacky to have a small cake for show for Jason and me to cut and have pictures made with, and then serve the exact same cake from the back? I really cannot see us having a gigantic 6 tier cake. That's kind of overkill I think. I haven't even talked to a cake person yet to see how much it would cost to have a cake made that would feed that many people, but I can't imagine it will be cheap. I have had mixed feelings about the cake for show with the pre-cut same cake in the back for serving. Some say it is tacky and people will comment on how I didn't have a big enough cake (like I really care), but I want everything to be perfect. Give me your thoughts!

I will be MIA this weekend as we are heading to Vegas..Starkvegas that is, for Liza's first football game!  I will post pictures when we get home Sunday night!  Happy weekend everyone!

Houston, we have a date!

Well, I am feeling much better about the wedding planning because...we have a date! All the stars aligned at the end of the week and we settled for June 4, 2011. We both originally thought we wanted May, but everything worked out better for us to do June 4 and we couldn't be more excited. We are set to get married at the Methodist church in Senatobia (where I graduated from Kiddie Kollege) and have our reception at 211 Main in Como. We have the caterer/florist (who is FABULOUS) and reception entertainment booked as well. The only thing I am missing so far is the photographer. I feel some relief and actually did not even think about wedding stuff today unless someone brought it to my attention. My dad said this evening, "Tara, did you know you haven't said anything about the wedding today. I'm so glad because earlier this week you were trying to plan it all in one day." Thanks, Dad. I was actually trying to get as much together as I could before school started back...which happened today. Now I am crazed for a completely different reason.

I am really excited about school this semester because these are my last two classes before I have my BSN from the University of Memphis, but that is the only thing I am excited about. In my opinion, BSN stands for "bull s*** nurse" because I really haven't learned much more than how to write an APA paper from the program. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful for the online RN-BSN program that Memphis has to offer and it really has been very accomodating and I haven't had too much trouble out of it, I just feel like I could have done without a class on issues and trends in nursing--come work with me in ICU and I'll show you some real issues and trends. I'm very disappointed in the Memphis hospital market as they are starting to shy away from hiring new graduates with associate's degrees (what NWCC offers, where myself and lots of my co-workers graduated from) and only hire BSN nurses. The only difference between ADN and BSN nurses is the fact that the ADN's do not have a formal community class, do not have a course in formal paper writing, and do not have a research course. The BSN program for RN's makes you go through a physiology/pharmacology course, HEALTH ASSESSMENT (I had been an ICU nurse for 1.5 years when I took that class), research, issues and trends, community, leadership, and ethics. I also had to take an upper level nutrition class--this was my second nutrition class (gag me! I hate skinny people stuff!). All of these things, while I had never had a formal class, I got from on-the-job experience. I guess I should not be complaining because my on-the-job experience made the program a lot easier, I'm just belly aching because I feel like I have been in school forever. Come to think about it, I have been in school 18 out of 22 years I've been on this earth. I actually gagged a little when I wrote that. But as everyone says, "it will all pay off in the end." A few weeks ago I was stressing out (go figure) about going back to school, even though I was going to be finishing, because I am planning to start the MSN program right away. Cue crazed meltdown. In this irrational state I told my mother that it would be my luck that the world would actually end in 2012, right in time for me to almost be finised with my MSN and I would have wasted my whole life stressing over school. She proceeded to tell me that she would slap me if I ever said that again :). Thanks, mom, for keeping me rational!

Anyway, enough about school. No one wants to hear about that boring mess! Back to the wedding. I spent some time with my very talented cousin last night reviewing the menu that my mom, Jason, and myself had created the evening before and talking about flowers. We pretty much nailed down the menu as she didn't have much to add to what we had already decided, but the flowers are a completely different story. My cousin asked me a couple of simple questions, "what flowers do you want and what type of arrangements do you want to put them in?" It was like she was speaking Chinese. I couldn't give an answer--I don't know!  Nor do I know if I really care. What I would like is for my mother, my cousin, and my mom's two super chic friends to decide on the arragements and just show me the day of the wedding, I really don't think I'd care. Ok, maybe type-A girl would, but I just can't decide! Guess that's what I need to think about now that I've got my major details nailed down.

Last tidbit before I get back to my school work. My mom, my sister/MOH, and myself have two appointments the third week in September to look for and hopefully order my wedding dress. My mom and I went to David's Bridal the other day to look at bridesmaids dresses and flower girl dresses and she talked me into trying on a few dresses. Needless to say, I pretty much found "the one" but didn't want to settle so we are going to go back there and Low's in Arkansas when my sister is home just to make sure I have seen all there is to see. Oh, and my sister's Say Yes to the Dress advice was actually right. The David's Bridal girl told me it would take up to 15 weeks to special order my dress since I am almost midget-like and require petite and then another 8-10 weeks to alter it. Ok people!  That is like pushing late April!  AHHHHHHHHHHH. Hopefully we can get one ordered on September 18 or else I'll be getting married in shorts and a t-shirt with a veil. :)

Happy weekend everyone!

Wedding Planning for Dummies

     Since every little girl dreams of her wedding day from the time she is four years old, I have naturally already started the planning process. Sunday (the day after we got engaged), Jason and I headed back to Jared to get my ring resized. (When he first gave it to me I could shake my hand and it would almost fall off--not cool!) I have always thought that the hardest part of the wedding planning process would be getting the ring, but boy was I wrong!

      When we dropped my ring off at Jared we were told to go find something to do for a couple of hours then come back and get it, so I thought we should run to Barnes and Noble to pick up a wedding planning book and a couple of bridal magazines. Those of you who know me know that I am type A personality amped up on coffee so I HAD TO HAVE the best, most detailed wedding planning notebook to keep my special day organized. We chose, well I chose, he held, The Ultimate Wedding Planner and Organizer, grabbed a couple of bridal magazines and we went off to grab a bite. As I opened the beautifully organized pink binder, a panic set in to my stomach. This joker is 270 pages long with 32 sections. Great for my type A personality, but it shattered my hopes that wedding planning would be fun and easy! The first thing that caught my eye was the section titled "Wedding Planning Checklist: Nine months and earlier". Nine months!  Nine months!  We want to get married in late May, early June...that is nine months--*squeal*! Some of the things that caught my eye that I am behind on are...drum roll please...almost everything!  Including, but not limited to, choosing a date, selecting and booking a church, selecting and booking a reception venue, BUYING MY DRESS, choosing colors, choosing "theme" of wedding, and booking a photographer. Pretty much the only thing we have done right so far is announce our engagement (courtesy of facebook and text messaging-classy!) and choosing the wedding party. Well, actually the wedding party is only half-chosen. My bridesmaids, one ring bearer (who also thinks he's the best man--too cute), and one junior bridesmaid have been asked; however, Jason has not asked any of his groomsman and we have yet to ask the flower girls, another ring bearer, and another junior bridesmaid. As far as the dress, my sister tells me that according to Say Yes to the Dress I am seriously behind and they would fuss at me if I came into their store (good thing we won't be going to New York!).

    Today we may get some things going, my parents are going to talk with the preacher about the church and I have some wheels rolling about the reception site, but other than that we are at a standstill. Maybe we will work on the guest list while we wait for something to be set in stone as my wedding planner (aka the book) tells me you must fix your guest list then divide it into must invite, need to invite, and would be nice to invite. I'm too nice for this...I'm going to need someone to be the "name chopper" as we try to do this blasted guest list.

    Anyway, enough rambling! If any of you have any tips, they would be greatly appreciated and more importantly, if any of you know where I can get a wedding planning for dummies book to go along with the ultimate planner, I'll be your new best friend! Have a nice day everyone! :)

He went to Jared!

     Since this blog is going to follow us on our journey from proposal to forever, I thought I would start out with "the story." For those of you who don't know me, Jason and I have been together almost 7 years (started dating January 1, 2004).  When I was a little girl I used to have a dream that I would marry someone whose name started with a "J", but could never see his face and never could remember his name when I woke up. We were 11 and 12 the first time we ever saw each other. We met several times throughout the years (he says I was mean to him when we were 11 so he blew me off when we were 14...another blog), but never really talked again until December 22, 2003--that was the night that changed my life forever. We started talking that night and have pretty much been inseperable ever since. I have always been old for my age so I have been nagging him to get married since we graduated high school in 2006, but he is the rational one and convinced me that we should wait until we were both finished with school. He finished Tool and Die school in May and landed a great job, so naturally my nagging kicked into full gear. I had melt downs quite frequently and am not particularly happy about it, but needless to say, he loves me anyway!
      Anyway, back to "the story". My 22nd birthday was this past Saturday. Naturally, I thought he had not gotten me anything for my birthday since I did not see him with any gift. I had a melt down on Tuesday night regarding our engagement (or lackthereof) status and he laughed and asked me if I could please continue to be patient (yeah right) a couple more months while he got his finances in order. I sucked it up and said "okay", but inside I was dying! I had four days to completely convince myself that I was absolutely, positively, no way in the world going to be getting a ring for my birthday!  So, as I convinced myself I was not getting the ring, Jason kicked his plan into action. He told me since he was saving for a ring he was going to cook me breakfast in bed for my birthday which I was okay with because it was a very sweet gesture. At 6:00 A.M. the morning of my birthday (Saturday morning), Jason woke me up to tell me he had to run to wal-mart to finish getting some things for my breakfast. I shook it off and went back to sleep (although, my mind wheels were turning still thinking that he may propose, but then slapping myself for thinking that awful thought! Give the poor boy a break, Tara, he's working his tail off to get you what you want, stop being such a brat, blah blah...) Well, about thirty minutes later he returned, empty handed, with the saddest puppy face I have ever seen. He couldn't find what he needed from wal-mart to complete my breakfast. He asked me right then, still with the saddest look on his face, if I wanted my present now or later. Well, if you can't tell already, I'm a bit of a brat, so of course, I wanted my present right then...breakfast I thought. He proceeded to tell me that he had this elaborate plan of how he was going to do this, but in true Jason fashion it fell through. He then got down on his knee and told me I was his soul mate and pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen! I, of course, bad hair/morning breath and all, leapt out of the bed and screamed "yes"!  I couldn't have been more surprised or happy!  He truly is the guy they make movies about..kind, gentle, compassionate..the ones you think don't exist, but he's real life people! After we celebrated a little by ourselves, I ran to tell the rest of my family...they were supposed to be helping, but my mom was late and my sister was still asleep. After the fact, though, they brought out roses and a congratulations banner with crowns (courtesy of my Dad and Sister). We have no pictures from this morning as I looked like complete death, but that's ok! I will never forget the look on his face when he asked me and I'm sure he won't forget the swamp looking lady that almost crushed him hugging him so tight!

     So in the midst of all of this I pretty much forgot it was my birthday, but we all went to breakfast to celebrate both occasions that morning and then went to dinner with friends at Bluefin later that night. To top the night off, we ate at the Cheesecake Corner in downtown Memphis. It is in a pretty rough neighborhood, but if you can get past that, the cheesecake is EXCELLENT!

     Needless to say, I had a fantastic birthday, but now reality has set in and I have NINE MONTHS to get this wedding together!  That's not long at all...hopefully panic will not ensue and I can reign myself in a little!

Thanks for reading today and I hope you enjoyed...I'm sure if you stick around you'll laugh frequently!