Last chance!!!

Last Chance to enter Natalie's giveaway!!!  Just click HERE, become a follower, and do it fast!!! If you do you can win this way cute scarf :)

Say it isn't so!

Has it really been so long since I've posted?!! I am so sorry! The past two weeks have flown by. My new job is awesome. Although, I still must admit feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new information and structure that is Kaiser Permanente. I am excited and love my boss, my team, and the organization as a whole and am just trying to figure out what my job will be while waiting for programs to install and more information to come to light. So, for now, I am meeting the people I'll be working with and finding out from them what they want from me, and spending a LOT of time in new employee orientations to help me acclimate. Yay for structure...it does help things make sense. :D

That really has been most of my life over the past couple weeks. Any down time has mostly been spent trying to rest and get over the cold I got the first week of work, and spending time with Tom whenever possible. I know we'll find a new routine soon, but for now, everything just seems to be everywhere! However, I have faith that it'll all calm down soon. :)

In other news, I got to go to the Ultimate Bridal Event with my Matron of Honor shortly after my last post and had a ball! We went knowing most my vendors are taken care of, but it was fun to get samples and cards and discounts (Laura even won me a certificate for $300 of my dress at a local bridal shop)! What a fun, relaxing day full of white dreams :)

I am also trying to decide what to do with my hair today...part of me loves the color and the other part worries about the damage I can feel (especially when I swim). But I won't be swimming much for awhile because of the weather and such. So thinking I should keep it the same color through the wedding and then go back...such hard decisions!!! What to do...what to do. Especially since the appointment is today! I will be sure to let you know, but wish me luck in deciding. :)

Sweet, sweet unemployment

This is the first time in my life where I can honestly say I am enjoying being unemployed...of course, it was also planned and has a definitive end. But even still, I have greatly enjoyed these past few days (and the next couple coming up) of no work. It has been a great blessing to sleep in, relax, and have little to no responsibilities. Of course, I have not been completely useless...I did visit my mom and future in-laws, do laundry, and clean the kitchen. So, if you ever get the opportunity to take time off between jobs, may I just give it a 10-star recommendation :D 


As I have been sitting her enjoying my time off, Tom's custom wedding ring came in. I must say it looks amazing! If you like the rugged look, Colin Kippen did a great job, it was not over priced (quite inexpensive actually) and a fun process to watch his one-of-a-kind wedding band be made and now to see it here. Isn't it neat? 

  

Ch Ch Cha Cha Changes!

Seriously, there are so many of them  right now!! Just over a year ago, I was so certain that nothing was going to change. So convinced that I went into a year long lease on a house and a 3-year lease on a gym. Two months later, I meet the man of my dreams on plentyoffish.com (a website that until then had proved to be completely useless). And all of a sudden everything changed. Now, I'm engaged, planning a wedding, I've changed jobs, moved again (out of a lease), and in general seen a 180 degree turn from what my life was before Tom. Wow! I feel so blessed to have my life, there really isn't much more I could ask for. 


Right now I'm enjoying a few days of planned unemployment between jobs. Tom is in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival with his best friend Matt. And other than cleaning the house, I am able to just sit here and enjoy some time to myself to think and relax (I should also go to the gym, since I was really bad this week). I really do love my life. What a great feeling to have! Thank you all for sharing it with me :) 

My New Blog Page!

Did you notice? Isn't it awesome?! I am so excited about it!! I won the design from Cristin and I think it is perfect! Definitely me :) I hope you all enjoy it as well. I'm not sure if she is still offering the blog designs, but definitely go check her out and see! Thank you again Cristin, you rock!

Time has flown

Seriously, did it really go by this fast when we were younger? It certainly did not seem so! It feels like every year goes by faster than the year before (makes me worry about those yet to come!). I did have a friend once explain that this happens because each year means that that year is a smaller fraction of our total years, and that is why it seems shorter. I don't know if it is that or we just forget how fast it went by the year before so it seems faster. Who knows?! All I know is, it has now been almost exactly 5 months since Tom proposed and only 8 months until the wedding. For all those who said having over a year to plan was way too much time and it was going to go slowly...you're wrong :-p

We still have to reserve tables and chairs (mom, we should do this soon), pick/order the dress, the shoes, accessories, get decorations for the yard, finish cleaning up/painting the yard (mom, I'll help with this one when you do it), figure out tuxedos, and a bunch else! Wowzers! Hopefully I'll get enough time/breaks with the new job to take care of it or else I might have to start delegating :-p lol I am excited for October. I am planning a trip with my bridal party and my awesome mom to go dress shopping down in the pasadena area. Exciting thinking about ordering my dress, but I have been wavering on what to do about size. I am working my butt off to get as low as possible before our October trip, but I am still hoping to continue working on losing weight between that and the wedding. So, do I order the dress purposely a size or two small (which makes measurements difficult), and hope I make it, or wait and hope when the time comes they have one my size sitting around? Or order it at the size I am that day and hold? 

I DID IT!!

Don't you just love all my new caps lock titles recently? lol Life is very exciting...Anyway, the reason for the excitement...*drum roll please*...I finally broke 200lbs!!!! I weighed in at 199.8 yesterday (and 199.6 today). The first time in years that I have been under 200! Woot! Very exciting for me. Although, this isn't to say I am even close to being done with my weight loss goals...I'm barely halfway there, but this was a major benchmark for me :) 

To celebrate (and also out of necessity), Tom and I went to Kohl's to get me some new tops and bottoms that actually fit (without looking frumpy). It was a nice reward and will be good so that I dress to impress at my new job! Yay. We've also decided that I must be obsessed with purple...literally every single top I bought (minus one) and just about everything else I tried on was like a plum shade of purple...I must have a thing for it! 

This has been quite the week and September will continue to be an exciting month. Changing jobs, Tom is going to Denver for a Beer festival, we have the hashing group camp out, and Tom's birthday is on the 14th. :) I think I will be ready to slow down in October...for sure! 

In other news...I think I have decided to stop coloring my hair. My near daily lap swimming has brought to light how much damage swimming has done to my hair (it feels so dry and crispy). So, I think I'll have my chica color me back to normal and let it grow out. Although, I have greatly enjoyed my being "red". I just can't justify the damage it is causing, and refuse to give up swimming as it is the most consistent way I have for exercising regularly. :)