One Month Until the Big Day!

I can't even believe that one month from today I'll be a married woman. I am seriously so excited that I might burst! Plans are coming along nicely, it just seems like there is more than enough to do on our plates.

Last weekend we had a very busy weekend. It started with our night out to see Floater. We had a great time and went to bed late (crazy for us on a Friday night!). Saturday I had a heck of a time fiddling with our borrowed mower and couldn't get it to start, so I just bought a new mower. I usually find that buying new things solves problems fairly easily. But I really did buy a new mower! It is a nice electric mower that plugs in and we really like it. The other mower wasn't ours and we had plans to buy a new one, so I just did it. I did mow the lawn and let's just say, I'm not the best mower. But at least I tried and I'll get better.

That afternoon, we went to our friend Alana's graduation party. She graduated with her Master's degree from BSU in Counseling (I'm not sure what the exact degree was!). It was a great day at her parent's house. We had a fun time playing lawn games and just lounging in the shade. And eating! There was lots of eating and drinking. We ended up the evening at Alana's to play some Mario Party and Scattergories and then we called it a night.

Sunday morning was when we planted our seeds for the garden. We'll find out in a few days whether we'll be getting anything from them. Then we headed to clean my work and met my parents downtown for the Idaho Green Expo. This was the first year of the Green Expo and was a pretty cool event. They had all kinds of exhibitors with green ways of doing things - there were cloth diapers, organic food, sustainable furniture, organic pest control, etc. You name it, they probably had it there. So that was fun and then we had a little lunch together.

That night we drove to Twin Falls and stayed in a hotel there so I could do a site visit in the morning for work. I checked out a new hotel and an event center that was recently opened to see if it would work for any of our events. After I did those site visits we drove to Blackfoot for Mat's Great Grandma's funeral. It was a beautiful service and her niece gave a wonderful speech about some of the great memories of her life. It was a sad day, but also there was relief to know that she was in a better place and she isn't suffering any longer.

We drove home Monday night and basically collapsed into bed. I think my allergies are getting the best of me these last few days and my head is not having fun. So yesterday I just kind got through until I could go to sleep again! I feel much better today and I know I'll just keep getting better as the week goes by.

A Little Bit of Bridezilla

I think the whole theory is right about Bridezilla coming out as you get closer to the wedding. In this case, my Bridezilla reared her ugly head with the DJ. It wasn't that bad, but I did get frustrated. I felt like I did when we met with this local company who sets up receptions and ceremonies - like they were telling me how our wedding should go and I didn't get much say in it.

So the guy shows up and is what Mat and I had feared - an over the top, really animated DJ Guy. He was nice, but just so energetic that it kind of makes us sick. (After he left, Mat even asked if I thought he snorted some coke right before he came in our house!) So we sit down and start going through our ceremony details. One of things Mat and I had talked about the previous evening was how everything was going to happen, who was walking when, etc. But over the top, really animated DJ Guy really, really, really wanted to talk us out of playing certain music and how people were coming in, etc. That's where I was annoyed. Seriously dude, I don't see why you care so much. And why do we have to do the exact same ceremony as every single other person who gets married in Boise? So maybe our vision is different, but there is nothing wrong with that. So that's where I got irritated and just told him that I respected his opinion, but that Mat and I had talked through the ceremony and reception and we knew how we would like the evening to go.

The rest of the conversation went fairly well, but I know he was disappointed when we opted out of the "Grand Cake Cutting Theme" (why can't we just cut the cake without really loud wedding bells?). We're excited about how everything is going to go and it seems like it is all starting to fall into place.

After over the top, really animated DJ Guy left, we got to pick more dandelions! I will conquer you dandelions.

Dandelions, I Curse YOU...Part 2

Dear Dandelions,
Why do you taunt me with your ways? Your yellow petals haunt me in my dreams. I fear our entire yard will turn into the fuzzy dandelions and you all will laugh at me. If there is a hell, it must be filled with dandelions that grow 20 times faster than normal dandelions.

Is it possible that you could try to grow a shorter root? Could you try not to reproduce so quickly? Why do you silently mock me as every inch of my body aches with pulling you out of the ground with all my might, only to turn around and see that 3 more have sprung up in your place?

Let me tell you something. We will conquer you. Even if we have to quit our jobs.
Love, Kristin and Mat

Dandelions, I Curse YOU

While I was at the baby shower on Sunday, Mat decided to start pulling up dandelions out of our yard because the weather was so nice and he is convinced that we need to pull them all before they turn into the big ball of fluffy seeds. When I got home, I volunteered to help because I am just that nice.

What did I get myself into? Looking at the yard, it doesn't look like there are that many dandelions. When you get down on the ground next to a yellow bloom. there are also a hundred about ready to bloom surrounding the original one you spotted. It's like our entire yard is made of dandelions. Mat had already pulled a million, so I decided to start pulling. After two dandelions, I wanted to burn the entire yard.

So I ask Mat, "Do you know if this is the best way to do this? I mean, what if our neighbors don't pull their dandelions and two weeks from now all their seeds blow into our yard and we have triple the amount of dandelions?"

His response: "But at least we'll have a head start since we already pulled the original dandelions in our yard."

Not Again!

I woke up to a nice inch or so of snow! UGH. I thought we were past snow. It's April, for crying out loud! At least the ground is warm and melted everything on the streets right away. Our yard was covered in snow, which was sad because it is just so pretty right now. We spent a few hours on Sunday actually in the yard. This was our first real adventure in the yard. Mat mowed the backyard once after we moved in and then the leaves came and we just kind of ignored them, hoping they would go away. Well, they didn't. So we raked and raked and mostly Mat raked and I picked up leaves. Then he even mowed the front and back lawns. I did some weeding in our raspberry and strawberry planter along the side of the house. Anyway, our yard looked so pretty! And now, it is covered in snow.

Spring Surprises!

Although it is only 42 here today, it still is beginning to look a lot like Spring in our backyard. To my surprise, there are some fun little blue flowers popping up in our flower bed that we thought we had pulled everything out of. Mat told me a few days ago that we had some cute blue flowers in our backyard, but I just assumed they were weeds! Pretty fun to have some flowers this soon and with it being still so chilly! I can't wait for it to get warmer and warmer every week.

Tonight is game night at Alana's and I am so excited! I made some delicious Oatmeal Carmelitas that I found on the Pillsbury website. Don't tell anyone, but I didn't buy Smucker's caramel sauce. OH the shame. Mat and I had a taste test after lunch and they are pretty tasty. All the gamers are supposed to bring something different and I signed us up for dessert. Hope everyone else likes them! We'll also bring a game or two, but who knows what we'll end up playing.

Tomorrow is our dreaded run to the grocery store. We did get cleaning out of the way today, so we won't have to worry about that tomorrow. I'm hoping we can get to the store and home and then just sit around watching some fun movies. I'm sure there are some wedding plans we need to work on, but I kind of feel like taking the weekend off!