Shower...

Tomorrow is my bridal shower.
Tomorrow is my bridal shower.
Tomorrow is my bridal shower.

I think that if I keep telling myself that my bridal shower is tomorrow it will hit me. And I keep proving myself wrong. It hasn't hit me.

I am very excited to see everyone...very touched and blessed that my very best friend is, as I type, driving down here from San Jose to host my bridal shower in her parent's BEAUTIFUL home. Then driving right back up there so she can be at work on Monday. My sister and her 3 week old drove down here late last night to be here and that is just enough to make my heart smile. In fact, I am choking up right now thinking about. Gosh I'm lame. My wonderful bridesmaids are plotting behind my back and organizing this event and carefully not telling me because they know that I hate secrets when people make it clear that there is something that is a secret....does that make sense?

Anyways, I am very blessed to have these women in my life and there will be post real soon recapping the fun event.



Stay tuned!

We're Big Kids Now

This past weekend, Nick and I really tackled a major landscaping job...We took down some ugly bushes, put a flag up, and planted, my favorite....Flowers in the window box! I will post more later once we are done with all the big stuff.

After 4 days of painting we have officially completed the living/dining room, kitchen, and 3/4ths of the guest bedroom. Next up? the hallway, bathroom, and master bedroom.

Then it's moving in time! YAY!

The Paper Goods

Now that I have sent out all the invitations, I can show them to you guys! I didn't want anyone to get a peek at them prior to my trip to the post office...

All along I had planned to do my own invitations which I knew would be an easy task but very time consuming. I started designing them back in November when we got engaged and keeping with the theme of the wedding...rustic simple elegance was the look I was going for. I wanted to incorporate orange into it seeing as that was the main color of the wedding but I also wanted it to have the simpleness while maintaining an elegant feel. I hope that I kept with that in the end result.

For those of you who do want to design their own invitations, I would suggest to start early. I would say I put about 40 hours + in the design part alone, mostly because I am a perfectionist and I would design, close the program and come back to it a little later and redo what I had done before. I had 3 seperate pieces to work on: the invitations, the RSVP cards, and the "more info" cards. Once I was set on the invitation design it was fairly easy to finish the rest.

I ordered my envelopes from Cards and Pockets which I found to be reasonable in price and their quality of paper was amazing. I will say in hindsight I should have ordered samples of the colors because I made the mistake by ordering the wrong color of gold the first time. But they were easy to return and I just bought the other color that I was looking at....it turned out to be exactly what I was going for. I used the 18K gold color and then the Sparkling Merlot for the RSVP cards.

The next step was inputing all the addresses in an excel spreadsheet which I have mentioned in previous posts. I then addressed all the envelopes, which I had done about a month before cutting, stuffing, and stamping the envelopes . Doing that made everything a lot easier by the way. Like I said, start early and take your time with all the stuff. I don't think I really stressed at all because I did that.

The paper that I chose for the invitations was actually sketch pad paper...it was fairly inexpensive and really gave the old antique-ish rustic feel in the end. Because it is sketching paper, it was bigger than the standard 8.5 x 11 paper. I had to cut it all done (which took tons of time) and then once I printed out the invites, I had to cut again. I would say that this took up the majority of the time.

Everything was printed and ready to go so at that point, I was ready to assemble. I had my stamps, the envelopes, each part of the invites and a lot of DVR to catch up on :)

By the way, a little word of advice to all my fellow brides. In your spreadsheet, make a column where you number each guest. Then on the back side of your RSVP envelopes, number them so that way if you have guests who forget to put their names on the cards, you will be able to indicate who is coming. This also took up some time but I think it is worth it.

**Notice the polar bear stamps? Not my favorite.....

Onto the post office I go! (there was a man outside talking on his phone, and I am pretty sure he thought I was a weirdo for taking this picture. I wanted to tell him it was for blogging purposes, however, I have a feeling, he wouldn't understand).

**Confession: I gave the lady my box of envelopes and got super emotional...this probably doesn't surprise those who know me, but it caught me off guard.**

So my box that was once full of 100 envelopes all the sudden became this:

By the way, i managed to do all this and still only have to pay $0.44 for the stamps! YAY!

Things to Make Your Heart Smile

What can I say...someone's gotta teach her how to love the finer things in life :)...kidding.... I told my niece, Kaydance Michel Musacchio, that there are 3 things in life that she should love...

1. Jeans. Can never have too many

2. Tiffanys. This will always make a girl smile.

3. Running. Just like her Auntie, it will be the best thing she can ever do. :)

Nick and I drove up Saturday morning and had to leave Sunday afternoon. I wish I could have stayed longer but since we went to Mammoth and still have our Fiji trip coming up in October, my vacay time is all filled up. Me= sad.

Anyways, so once we got there I ran straight into her nursery where I saw my mom and sister holding her. From the moment I saw her I just fell more in love with her. Look at her long fingers! Isn't she just the most adorable thing in the whole wide world? My sister was A-MA-ZING. 28 hours of labor, no drugs, and 3 hours of pushing.

Hi....Pain City? Party of one?!

Good thing we had a nice glass of wine the next day to celebrate her arrival!

Cheers!

I can't wait until I can hold you again, Kaydance. You're wonderful :)

The Red Door

Remember this post? Well, let me tell you something....God has answered our prayers. :)

For those of you who may not remember the post, let me recap a bit. Nick and I started looking for houses to buy almost a year ago...a few offers were made, none were accepted, then we thought about renting for a year or so until we found the house...we were 3 months out about ready to pull our hair out because we have no idea of where we are going to live, let alone a city in which we will live in. This is normal for most engaged couples, where they get to the point where they have to make a decision about where they will live and they have to make that decision soon. Well we were very much at that point...at least it felt that way. I think it was after our 3rd or 4th arguement where I finally got to the point where I was just giving up. I figured, if I didn't worry about it, we would magically have a place to live come October 10th. Well that didn't happen.

Finally he and I made a day where we went down to the beach to look for condos...we figured, let's live near the beach for a number of reasons, i.e. it's close to the beach and traffic to work would be next to nothing. score!

We got down there and after a few discouraging phone calls we decided to call it quits and lay out. Hey, at least we got something out of it! But at the end of the day, we still hadn't found a place to live. So Type A, Lindsey gets back into gear and starts talking to a friend through Young Life about where they are living. She and her fiance are getting married a week before Nick and I and also are looking down near the beach. We talked about a complex in Costa Mesa, it looked awesome, had everything we were looking for, after talking to Nick about it, I made the call to go look at it. Well the day we were supposed to look, something came up and we couldn't.

**side note: I was very frustrated at this point, we had to find a place but I took a deep breathe and just let it go....

we went for bike ride that evening (Thursday)....Nick had found an ad in The Courier about a "cottage" near the Village and we thought we would go take a look at it. Well it sure was a cottage and though it was darling, the owners were cool, they also used to have Shelties so that made me happy...it was just too small.

Bummer....

This is where it gets good...this is also where, now looking back, God totally had this plan the whole time.

***another side note: those of you who know me, know that I love Claremont. When I get back into Claremont after work or just being gone all day, I find myself almost ALL THE TIME, taking a deep breathe and telling myself I love Claremont when I get back into town....it's kinda sick actually....I have always told my friends that when I have kids I want them to grow up in Claremont. Though it is very pricey and liberal, it is very much me. I love the trees, the smell, the running routes, the trails, the village, 21 Choices, Claremont Young Life, etc...I think you get the point. Though I love it so much, we had never even considered it because it was so out of our price range. But I told Nick, that eventually, like 20 years down the road when we can afford a nice house there, I have two must-haves....a porch...and a red door.

Ok so we are riding back up to my house and I suggested we go up a side street so it wouldn't be too crowded....we found a for rent sign at this really cool house that was for sale a few months back....Nick had called them the next day, as it turns out it was twice as much as we were willing and able to pay but the lady had another property down the street available. So that Friday, Nick went down there, I was at work, but I google mapped it...he LOVED it, I loved the location, and I loved that he was just so excited for it. We filled out an application that night, and that Saturday I went and looked at it. I loved it!! We turned in an app right then and there...The very next Wednesday we got the house!!! Soo....guess what? I move in August!! What the heck?! It happened so quickly....

Such a God thing....I am still in awe...we are very blessed that during that whole time, God was preparing a house for us...in Claremont...and with a porch. and. a. red. door.

I don't have a creative title. (sorry)

Today is one of those days....

After dealing with angry people at work, feeling like crap as if the world is against Lindsey I saw something that made me feel a little bit better...on my cubicle wall is a note from Nick that he had sent with flowers. It's dated March 29, 2010 and the note says:

"I can't wait to marry you!! I love you forever and ever!!

I love little surprises like that...it reassures me that he is thinking about me even when I'm not around.

Makes me smile...

Who Am I?

Today has been a good day overall, I went down to Laguna with 2 of my bridesmaids, they wanted to see our venue and today worked out that the 3 of us could go.  However, despite the beach trip and the venue trip, I would be lying if I told you I didn't break down at least twice today.  #1 was when two separate newspaper machines (in different locations mind you) ate my quarters.  # 2 was just now when I let the stresses from this post get the best of me. So instead of sleeping peacefully right now, I am writing this listening to my music wondering if I will fall asleep tonight.  But something good has come out of this....I managed to stumble upon this great song....it's truly one of my favorites and after listening to it I am beginning to think that maybe God was behind those machines eating my money, and my breakdowns that I have already had and will have.  I also pray that He gives me energy tomorrow due to my lack of sleep.  I will leave you all with these beautiful lyrics:

"Who Am I" by Casting Crowns

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth

Would care to know my name

Would care to feel my hurt

Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star

Would choose to light the way

For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

Vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am

I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin

Would look on me with love and watch me rise again

Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea

Would call out through the rain

And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

Vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am

I am Yours

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

Vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am

I am Yours

I am Yours

Whom shall I fear

Whom shall I fear

'Cause I am Yours

I am Yours