So much to say…

I hate when it’s been forever since I’ve updated my blog. My whole purpose for having a blog is so that I have the ability to look back at what I was doing last week, last month, last year - whatever - and see what I was doing/thinking/feeling etc at that time. So, I get really disappointed when I suck at updating. And now, it’s been so long and we’ve done soooooooo much that updating becomes an enourmous task!

But enough whining about that.

Let’s see… Well, in the past month, we’ve had a cake tasting and ordered our cake, had an engagement party at my parents’ house, got a new car for Alex, discovered that Alex’s dad is giving us Marriott points for the honeymoon, and ordered our wedding bands. It’s all sooooooooo very exciting!

The cake tasting was a lot of fun! I was so adament that we were not going to pick out or order a cake while we were there, but I had one taste of the mocha cream filling and I was sold! Alex and I really enjoyed the cake tasting - sampling all of the different cake flavors and fillings while sipping on cappucinos was a nice break to a Wednesday. We found a design that we both loved and Alex decided that since he’s not too into cakes anyway, I could pick out the flavor. Since we both loved the mocha cream, we went for that. The price was surprisingly affordable and so we just went for it!

We had a fab time at our engagment party at my parents’ house. Wham and Amy worked hard and pulled off a great party! There was lots of food and drink and everyone had a great time. Alex and I tried to make sure that we kept circulating to socialize with everyone and I couldn’t believe how quickly the night went by - I can’t imagine what the wedding is going to be like! Of course, I was exhausted for the party because of some unexpected car business the night before and hopefully the night before the wedding will find me sleeping more so that I won’t have to battle exhaustion through the night.

Speaking of the car business… Alex went out with his friend, Dave, the night before our party. They took Alex’s car - the 91 Escort that was his sister’s then his father’s and became Alex’s when we were in need in December - to Albany. On their way home at 2:30am the car died. Dave was driving and wasn’t used to the quirkiness of the clutch and it ended up burning out on them. So I got the call at 2:30 to go find them on the side of the Thruway. Of course, I’d only been asleep for about an hour at the time so I was TIRED. I ended up finding them and driving them back to our apartment, only to have Alex realize that he left his wallet in the car. So we drove all the way back out and then tried to have the car towed but gave up after not getting thru to AAA after being on hold for over 45 minutes. I didn’t get to sleep until close to 5am. Got up early that morning to go to Weight Watchers and then kept running all day to find the Escort which had been towed and impounded and get it taken care of. Needless to say, Alex and I were pretty stressed out about it.

We ended up going car shopping the next day and actually found a car for Alex right away. He knew that he’d wanted a Toyota Camry after driving the rental that I had after my accident over December. We found a 2005 Camry for a great price and were able to get excellent financing for it. Alex was super-psyched because the car looked great - it’s black with chrome accents - and was actually a standard. Alex was very happy about that. We were even able to pick it up the next evening. I am sooooooo happy for Alex because this is his first “new” used car bought through a dealer. He is so in love with his car and I am so happy for him!!

My dad had told me a couple weeks back that he’d be able to give us air tickets using frequent flier miles for our honeymoon flight, which we were hella excited about. It brought us one step closer to going on a honeymoon, which is something that we weren’t positive was going to happen. We still had to figure out how we’d pay for a hotel. Alex told me this past weekend that his dad was going to be able to give us Marriott points - enough for a week’s stay in a “category 7″ (five star) hotel. So we are definitely going to be able to go on a honeymoon!!!!! We are soooo excited!! We decided that we’d like to go to London. We’ve got to figure out all the particulars now, but it looks like the honeymoon will be a week in London with day trips to Paris and Edinburgh. We’re SO happy! It’s fun to plan our honeymoon - less stressful than wedding planning. Not that I think that wedding planning is stressful - I’ve actually been having a blast with it! But there are a lot of details to the wedding planning and only so much I can do at a time. The honeymoon planning is a lot of research and daydreaming right now and that’s a welcome change of pace.

Yesterday, we went out and bought our wedding bands! Alex has known for like 3 months which band he wants. We’d gone to Frank Adams jewelers in Stuyvesant Plaza a while back and Alex tried on a ring there that he really connected with. It’s yellow gold on the inside, white gold on the edges, and hammered rose gold in the center. The ring is large (which looks right on his hand) and very heavy. Every ring that he’d tried on after that didn’t feel right to him. They didn’t have the same heavy feeling. He wanted his “one ring to rule them all”. That ring was pretty expensive, though. After I did our taxes, I figured that we could use our tax returns to buy our rings and we’d totally be able to afford the one that he wants. I kept thinking about a piece of advice that Beck gave me - don’t skimp on the wedding rings because those are a forever thing. How could we not get the one that Alex really wanted? I didn’t think that I would find a ring at Frank Adams that I wanted because the last few times we were there, nothing looked right to me. The salesgirl that was there yesterday was awesome. She pulled a bunch of rings for me to try on and I finally found one that Alex and I both really liked. My engagement ring is so intricate that most bands looked odd next to it. A plain white gold band looked too plain, but a band with prong set diamonds looked like it was too much. I found a very thin pave set diamond band that had a single row of small diamonds halfway around. It’s very delicate and vintage looking and looked great with my band or alone on my finger. We’re very excited for our rings - we both want them right now. The order is going in tomorrow and I guess I’ll find out then how long it will be until they get here. Can’t wait!!

And now it is time for me to go to bed. It’s almost ten (gasp!) and I’ve got to get up at the crack of dawn to get to the gym. I’ve been pretty good since January when I started back at Weight Watchers and have lost 17 lbs so far. I’ve learned, though, that I really can’t skip out on the gym and I’m trying really hard to get there in the mornings so that I don’t find excuses not to go after work. I’ve got an appointment on Tuesday with one of the Fitness Trainers (included in the membership) and I’m hoping that he can help me design a good upper body and abs routine. I really hope that I hit my goal for the wedding - I really want to love my pictures!

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Engaged!!

My intuition was right - Alex proposed to me while we were on vacation in Disney World last week! He actually had me all screwed up… I was confident for about a year that it would happen there, but during the week before we left he started to take me ring shopping again to throw me off. He kept telling me that he had no idea what kind of ring he should get me and that even if he bought one, it wouldn’t be ready in time to take along on vacation. He was driving me absolutely crazy!!! He even sat me down on the couch and hugged me and told me that he was sorry that it wasn’t going to happen in Disney World. What I didn’t know was that he’d had the ring for about two or three weeks at that point! He totally knows how to play me. He even took it along to Tara’s wedding and showed it off to his entire family and I was clueless. Beck told me that she actually had it in her hand at one point when I was talking to her. I had no clue.

So, the proposal was awesome - very much “us”. We went to dinner our first night at Disney World at the California Grill - the restaurant that sits on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort and has amazing views of the Magic Kingdom. We had a great dinner and went out to the observation deck to watch the fireworks go off over the castle. After dinner, Alex suggested that we go to the Polynesian Resort and go to the beach and find the hammock that we’d found the last time we were at Disney World. When we got to the resort, we grabbed drinks at the bar and went down to the beach and found the hammock - but this time there were people nearby and it didn’t seem quite as awesome as the first time we were there. We walked down the beach until we came to the opposite end, which was more secluded and also had a hammock… This hammock was even better because we could see Cinderella’s Castle across the lake as we were laying in it. After the fireworks, they put different color lights on the castle so we lounged in the hammock and watched the castle change colors and chatted. Then, Alex said to me, “So…” and I looked over at him and sitting on his chest was an open ring box with the most sparkly ring I’d ever seen in my life in it. I couldn’t believe it - he had me so convinced that it wasn’t going to happen that I was having a hard time believing that it actually was happening. The ring was so sparkly in the moonlight, it almost looked fake. “…Will you be my wife?” I don’t think that I said yes right away because I was so shocked and too busy staring at the ring. I finally did say yes and he helped me put the ring on my finger and I spent the rest of the trip staring at it and trying to get it in every picture anyone took of me or us. It’s actually quite obnoxious to look at my photo album from the trip and see my obsessivness. Also, my fatness. Ew, I’m so freaking huge. Gotta get back on that…

Of course, we don’t have a date yet. I’m thinking it’ll be next October, though. Depends on where there are still openings… I’m super nervous that everywhere I want is going to be booked already – I checked the availability calendar on the Appel Inn website and their first Saturday opening in the fall isn’t until October 27th!

Anyway, I’m just so happy that we’re getting married! I’m so excited!!

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Last Engagement Ring for a While…

But isn’t that one just so pretty?!

I emailed Alex with this picture and told him that I liked this one because it’s got a thin band with pave set diamonds and, though it doesn’t taper in towards the diamond, it does have a vintage-y flower-like look that really draws the eye in towards the center diamond.

He emailed me back with his want:

A Tag Heur Carrera watch. Yeah… on sale, it’s $1300. Ouch. A deal’s a deal, though. But, he’s got to buy mine first.

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Or maybe that… ;)

So Alex surprised me with a trip to the Albany location of Northeastern Fine Jewelry on Saturday and I tried on that ring. The girl who was helping us pulled it for me after I described my ideal ring as being antique looking with a thin band with pave set diamonds on it that might taper in towards the center diamond - to make it the focus of the ring. I don’t think you can get any closer to my ideal ring than that. Actually, I’m not terribly picky. I don’t have my heart set on any one ring. I’ve given Alex the description of my ideal ring and he’s got a good idea of what I like. In fact, he picked out a few gorgeous rings for me to try on the other day:

I know I’ll be overjoyed with whatever ring he gets me. But it’s fun to look and try things on right now!

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Patience is a Virtue.

I’ve never claimed to be a patient girl. I mean, I CAN be patient. Actually, I can be very patient with other people. In fact, just the other day one of my clients said to me, “Do you have small children?” “Me?! No!” I replied. “We were just talking about you the other day,” she said, “and we thought that you must have small children because you’re so patient!” Her comment made me laugh because right now I’m having a “patience crisis”.

Honestly, I’m just not very patient when I want something. When I want something, I want it now. Most people would call that “spoiled” or “bratty”. I prefer impatient.

The boy is only adding fuel to the fire by surprising me with trips to Northeastern Fine Jewelry and other stores filled with pretty, sparkling things. He also suggested that I buy a wedding planning book the other day when we were cruising Barnes and Nobles.

So I know he’s excited too, and I know it’s going to happen… But the waiting is so hard! It also doesn’t help that he apparently thinks he needs to buy me some enormously huge diamond. We were looking at loose diamonds at Northeastern the other night and the one that he liked was $3600! I told him that if he spent that much money on just a rock for me, I’d kill him! It was pretty though… A 3/4 carat oval diamond that was colorless with no visible imperfections. I like the oval diamonds because they’re sort of unique and classic and romantic… But I definitely don’t need some overly expensive one! And I don’t want to wait while he saves up for a giant rock that I’ll be afraid to wear!

Ok. Enough whining. I need to keep reminding myself that it will happen when it happens. For now, I’ll enjoy the trips to the jewelry store, trying on all the pretty, sparkling, things, and the teasing from Alex when I get all impatient.

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I want THAT…

… well, not exactly that. But the one that I tried on last night was a lot like that. Instead of two rows of pave set diamonds on the band, there was just one row (which I think was prettier). And instead of round side diamonds, they were princess cut. It was SO pretty and SO sweet. And Alex liked it too. And it wasn’t that expensive… In fact, it’s less than the amount that Alex will be getting back with his tax return. I really liked it. I didn’t want to take it off my finger.

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These are "Alex Approved"…

He doesn’t like my whole centerpiece ring obsession. I knew that was a reach. But he has admitted that he likes this style of ring… It’s simple enough for him, but sparkly enough for me.

So, uh, I want that.

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(You Know) I Want That.

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I want that…

So, Alex had to work just about all weekend and he felt bad for leaving me alone all weekend. He decided that he’d take me out last night to make up for it. I told him that he didn’t have to, but he insisted. We decided to try Carrabbas for dinner. It was ok… Not that great - just average. All of the dishes on the menu seemed the same. Noodles, white wine lemon sauce, shrimp. The only difference was if there were mushrooms in the dish or peas. After dinner, we went to the Sports Authority where Alex looked around f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I got bored… and pouty.

Alex wanted to cheer me up and asked what he could do for me. I told him that I wanted a cookie. He brought me to the mall where we went to the Pottery Barn (which is one of my favorite stores - my decorating in the apartment is “Pottery Barn Inspired” - because I can’t afford much of anything from the store!). Alex bought me three sparkly ornaments (because he knows I’m absolutely enchanted by anything sparkly). After that, we looked at more sparkly things… We went ring shopping!

We started at Hannoush Jewelers but I didn’t really find anything there that knocked my socks off. But then we went to Littman Jewelers and I found a ring definitely did.

Ahh… So pretty… The saleslady noticed we were lingering over one of the cases so she came rushing over and offered to let me try some rings on and before I knew it I had that ring on my finger. It was so pretty. I mean, that picture really doesn’t do it justice. It looked awesome on my hand. Alex announced that it was “grotesque”. The saleslady almost fell off her chair. He proclaimed that it had “crap all over it” and said that he preferred simple rings. I explained that I love rings that don’t show a lot of band - I like rings that have a lot of sparkle. Like I said, I’m entranced by all things sparkly. The saleslady gave us a catalog of their rings and we continued to meander around the mall.

We went to Uno’s where Alex got me my cookie - we split a deep dish chocolate chip cookie sundae. It was SO good. While we ate our dessert, we perused the ring catalog. I showed him what kind of rings I like and what kind I thought were ugly. He kept saying that I liked ugly rings and he was glad that I wasn’t the one buying the ring. I said I’d be the one wearing it, so he better get me one that I like. I mean, I’ll love whatever ring he gives me… but if he gives me one like that one, I’ll pee my pants! By the end of the night, Alex asked what style that ring I liked was.

Yay! I love my boy - he’s so good to me!

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