6 Months Ago Today....

6 months ago today was our wedding day! It's hard to believe that it's already been half of a year. In some ways it feels like it has flown by, but it also feels like a memory. Our wedding day was the happiest day of my life so far. I have never smiled and cried so much in the same day.
Today my husband reminded me why I love him so much. He surprised me and had flowers delivered to my work! It's even more special because it's only our 6 months anniversary. It's not a "real" anniversary. Thus I was even more surprised and touched by his thoughtful gesture.

I love his sweet and simple words

I love my husband and think I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Brown Sugar Bacon Waffles

Oh My Gosh! These look delicious!

I saw this waffle recipe on Brown Eyed Baker. Waffles with bacon cooked in. This looks terribly unhealthy, but it also looks SOOOO good!
I can't wait to try these out one day. I'm thinking Valentine's Day breakfast. :-)

Just Another Sunday

Guess what I will not be doing today?

Yep...I am NOT watching the Super Bowl

Get this.... I hate football! I mean, I really hate football. I could care less about the Superbowl, except for maybe some of the cleaver commercials.

So while everyone else in the country is sitting around around the tv, I am the odd ball out. I will be doing homework, cleaning the house, and watching anything else on tv that does not involve football.

Sorry. I know it's so sacrilegious to say on High-Holy-Super-Bowl-Sunday. But I am not watching...and I like it that way! :-)

Love is Sweet

In a few weeks James and I will be hosting an engagement party for our friends. Remember our best man Sean and his girlfriend Liz?
Sean is Jame's best friend, and he and Liz started dating 6 months after James and I did. They have become our really good "couple friends". Sean & Liz got engaged at the beginning of December and are getting married in October. It's sweet, last year Sean was James' best man and this year James will be Sean's.

We are going to have a "Dessert & Wine Party" for them. The plan is to have a really cute dessert buffet that hopefully incorporates green which is their wedding color. Possibly using the theme "Love is Sweet". James and I don't drink wine, so we never know what to buy. James had the great idea of asking everyone to bring their favorite bottle of wine. What they don't drink will be gifted to the couple.

I have been looking at pictures of dessert tables lately. There are so many options and ways to make it cute. I am not totally sure what I am going to do yet. I like the idea of using different levels of desert stands. One of the looks I have seen recently is putting green apples in a vase. I think it looks neat. I also plan on using white and green flowers.

I'm trying to figure out what games we should play. When I was getting married, my bridal shower and engagement party were the first ones I had ever been to. So needless to say, I don't have a lot of experience. At our party the host put up two large pieces or paper. One said "Advice from Men" and "Advice from Women". It lead to some pretty funny answers. I'm looking forward to throwing this party for them. Also James and I like to joke that it's good to have people over because it's an excuse to clean the house. haha!

My Husband's Gold Medal Garden

The garden that my husband installed was awarded a gold medal! James does great work so this is no surprise to me. :-)
It's an awesome thing for James' business to be able to say that he installed a gold medal garden.This afternoon my friend and I went to the show so that I could see all the gardens. I of course had to take lots of pictures of my husband's garden.

While we were there James bought me over to this little garden. He laughed when he saw it and he knew I would like it.

It's a "barbie wedding garden" haha!

My Husband, The Gardener

My husband is going to be gone basically for the next 10 days. He is getting the awesome opportunity to build one of the gardens at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. This is a big annual event in Seattle. It features huge gardens that are created inside the convention center. I have never been, but from what I have seen and heard it's pretty cool.

I don't think I have ever blogged about my husband's business before. James owns his own landscaping company. He is a landscape designer and a certified horticulturist. My husband is a total jokester who loves pun and play on words. His comany is named Fancy Plants Gardens. Get it? ........ Fancy PANTS....Fancy Plants... hahaha!!! He's a goof and I love him for it.

He has a website that shows pictures of his work. There are lots of "before and after" pictures. He also just recently started a blog where he shares tips on pruning and plant care.

...This is one of my favorite pictures. James was working in front of our house one day with his worker Lulio. I have mentioned before how I live on the same street at a bunch of family. So in the summer our street is often filled with family and neighborhood kids. As James and Lulio were shoveling, the kids stopped biking and one by one they all came to help. Someone took a pictures, thank goodness! It's so cute to see all those kids, some with their helmets still on! hahaha

Student Loans

President Obama said one of the best lines last night while giving his State of the Union Address.

"No one should go broke because they chose to go to college"

Amen to that!

I really hope he is able to make the changes to student loans that he is promising. Loan payments would be capped at 10% of a person's discretionary income. All student loans would be written off in 20 years. 10 years if you go into public service.

I agree 100% with this. I think it's terrible that people have to go so far into debt to just get an education. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful to be ABLE to have loans and go to school. Taking out loans are the only way we could afford to send me to school. But at the same time it's terrible that you do something "good" and then have to financially struggle for years and years to pay them all back.

Funny Wedding Pictures

I came up with the idea of this post from someone on the weddingbee message boards last week. Actually it was my good blog friend August15Wife who started the awesome thread. She posted some of her funny and goofy wedding pictures and asked us all to share our own. It was hilarious seeing all the pictures. Not every wedding picture can be that perfect image that you will frame or put in an album. Some of the images come back looking like this:

I thought it would be funny to dedicate a post to all my funny wedding pictures.

Hitting The Books

Life sure has gotten busy the past few weeks. I am in my 3rd week of school right now and things are getting hectic. I changed my work schedule so that I work part time. It is so wonderful to leave the office every day at 1:00pm. I thought working part time would make me feel like I was almost not working at all. I have always worked full time, so 23 hours seemed like nothing. I felt like I would have all the time in the world for school work. This is totally not the case. Even though I only work 4.5 hours a day, I am still away from home for over 6 hours. It certainly still feels like I am working and going to school.

This is also my first time taking 3 classes. I have taken 2 before, so I thought that 3 would be no big deal. Wrong again! Not only it is 4 more credits, I am now a Junior and these are heavy classes. Every week I have a paper or an exam due in all three classes. I take my text book to bed with me every night so that I can try to stay caught up. And just when I feel like I am on top of things, we get another big assignment. My life right now is pretty much nothing but school, with a little work sprinkled in.

But I stop myself before I start to sound too negative. Even with all this extra work and stress, I am really happy. I am thrilled to be at a new school and to be finally be studying nothing but Psych. related classes. I feel as though I am moving forward and that is a really exciting feeling.

My hope is that this is like a muscle. I hope that as these weeks progress, I will begin to get into a rhythm. I know that I can handle this. So many people take this many classes and more. I am just new to trying to juggle it all. I need a little more practice so I can build up some big "student muscles".

The Flower Toss "Incident"

One of the funniest parts of our wedding was my bouquet toss. The pictures always make me laugh.

I am not the most delicate lady and my bouquet was no exception. :-) I took my bouquet and threw it over my head with all my might. There was nothing "delicate" about this toss.
The flowers smacked Liz so hard that one of the roses exploded and petals were flying everywhere!

See the petals all over the floor? ;-)

When the flowers hit Liz, everyone started to cheer. It was hilarious and totally meant to be. Liz has said in the past that she wasn't the biggest fan of bouquet tosses. When all the ladies went out on the floor, she stood in the back and she actually had her arms crossed. And, all of a suddenly pink roses came flying and landed in her arms. She tried to hiding the back but the bouquet still found her! haha!!
The flowers worked too. In December Sean and Liz were engaged and will be getting married in October.