4 Month Countdown

Well, today marks 4 months until the wedding. Just 120 days now stand between me and a planning-free lifestyle!

I'm going to preface this post with: This is not intended for anyone specifically and I am not trying to be ugly....

Now, with that said: *Approach Soapbox* Here goes...

Wedding Planning, YOU SUCK! People say that this is supposed to be a marvelous time in your life and that it will all be worth it. Well, when people say that about pregnancy, I get it...you get a HUMAN BEING out of the 9 months of carrying, planning, etc. I understand that planning a wedding is not quite as physically daunting, but for the past 12 months, mentally and emotionally, it's putting me through the ringer. I do know that the day will be amazing...all 5 hours of it, I'm sure, but I don't know that I'll look back and say "wow, that was totally worth it all." Stay tuned as I'll be sure to write a post about it at that point, but like I said, I just can't imagine those words coming out of this mouth. I feel as if this has turned into Bride vs. Everyone.... All I want is for everyone to be happy, but wait a second...isn't this the one day in a woman's life that is supposed to be 100% about her? I'm writing all this down so that if I have a daughter I remember to come back and read what I felt at this time.
I pulled out my back this week (true story) and I did it from bending over backwards for everyone else (that part's just me being dramatic!). Really though, I feel like as if I am going out of my way to please my friends, bridal party, parents, in-laws, venues, vendors, dogs, cats, random strangers walking down the street....you name it! And I'm SO.OVER.IT!!!!!!

*Step down from soapbox*

Whew - thanks! Needed to get that off my chest! I resolved this week to just say ok to anything and everything. From here on out, I don't care what goes on the tables, what goes in the envelopes, what the bouquets are made of, what the people wear, etc. I'm just going to breathe, smile and remember that I am going to marry my best friend and go on a fantastic, adventuresome and relaxing honeymoon with him. Now I DO know why people take honeymoons now! That, you definitely deserve!

Little sisters, friends that have yet to get hitched and any random man and/or woman reading this....I have two words for you:
DESTINATION WEDDING!!!!!

Coulda, woulda, shoulda! ;)

Now for a little update:

1. We put an offer in on a house, but someone else beat us to it. :( But, we're going on a marathon hunt on Sunday with our realtor and I'm looking forward to it. Everything happens for a reason, so that just means there's an even better place out there for us! Hopefully the kitchen is just as amazing!!

2. Lisa's Likes: I came across a pretty cool website a week or so ago...it's called http://hungrygirl.com/. It's a website full of yumm-o healthy recipes and tips. I just love it and hope to make some of the recipes soon!
Going right along with healthy options, pinterest has given me a couple of great recipe options as well.... I made these two last weekend and they have both been fantastic, quick and super healthy breakfast options.
     ~1. Green Monster Smoothie: So Yum!!
           - 2-3 bananas
           - frozen mangos, peaches, pineapples
           - 2-3 cups spinach (I haven't tried other veggies yet but I hear carrots & cucumber work too!)
           - 1/4 cu. greek yogurt (optional)
           - 1 cup fat free milk (optional)
           - ice and water as needed for desired consistency
        Blend them all together and voila! You have a green monster. It's nutritious and delicious. Don't                 be concerned...if you add berries, nuts (another option I've heard used) or certain veggies, you'll get a         brownish monster. It should still be just as yummy!

I freeze them and pop it in the micro for about 1 min in the AM and have a delish breakfast! They're also great if you're craving ice cream or sweet treat!

     ~2. Egg McMuffin's (Not the McD way, but the clean way!)
          - egg whites
          - any seasoning and veggies you want (I used pepper, garlic, sea salt, spinach and onion)
        Mix egg white beaters with your veggies and seasoning. Spray down your muffin tin or use cupcake liners and then pour in mixture. I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. Use the toothpick test to check if they're done: place toothpick through middle and if it comes out dry, you're good to go!

I don't even know where to begin with how fast, yummy and healthy this is!

3. We have some more engagement pictures...here's just a few...

Until next time.

Love,
Lisa

Wedding Cake Woes

   

     



Who knew that the one thing I'd wind up having a mini-breakdown over would be cakes. Really?!?!? Cakes?!?! I don't even like cake that much, so why has the decision of selecting a cake design been SOOOOO difficult?

I believe that there are too many options and unless it is completely plain or completely outlandish, I like them all! A blog with every kind of cake you can imagine: http://design-wedding-cakes-pictures.blogspot.com/2011/10/global-cake-blog.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DesignWeddingCakesAndToppers+%28Design+Wedding+Cakes++and+Toppers%29

First of all, shapes:

You've got your round cakes, your square cakes, you hexagon cakes, your flower shaped cakes, your heart shaped cakes and/or your mismatched no rhyme or reason shaped cakes that are supposed to be "trendy". Sigh…

 

After shape comes decorating and the list here is endless. I won't waste your time or mine by going through every option, but whew – there are a lot of options. Textured, not textured, plain, ornate, piping, fondant, buttercream, blah blah BLAH! Stop the madness! Ha.

 

After "pinning" a variety of different cakes throughout the past week or so (and the above pictured don't even scratch the surface of the variety I looked at), I flipped back through yesterday and not one said "Pick Me". I enlisted the help of my mom – some things we agreed on, some we did not, but she has given me full creative lead on the cake and while, nice, I also felt it was a burden as I had only narrowed 150 million choices to about 150 thousand! So, after filtering a few more yesterday throughout the day and after flipping through some magazines at the grocery store last night (as if the millions of online options weren't enough to send me into cake insanity), I decided to ask B…

The option hadn't really occurred to me before because we know what the Groom's cake is going to look like and I figured as long as he liked the taste of the Bride's cake, he probably wouldn't give the style of it a passing thought. I was almost even a little surprised when he didn't seem defeated at the suggestion (ahem) of browsing through some cake design photos online last night! It actually really helped and we knocked a few styles out of the running rather quickly and with that we scanned through another few pages of pictures on theknot.com and "ahhhhhh" (heavenly voices singing), there it was… Ok, well maybe it wasn't quite that obvious, but after zooming in on the picture, I decided with a couple of tweeks, I do indeed think it could be all we've ever dreamed of in a cake. (I have a flare for the dramatics seeing as how I don't think I've ever dreamed of cake in my life, with the exception of the past few days, as this task has overwhelmed me…). Ta Daaaaaaaaaa!



Like I said, they'll be some changes, but this is the gist of it. Sans all the flowers! Too much for me!



The only other consuming thought in my mind right now is trying to figure out what on earth we're going to wear for round 1 of our engagement session. We're breaking it up into 2 mini sessions for scheduling purposes, which is a-ok with me (especially since it gives me more time to come up with more outfits/ideas for the next session) and the first is on Sunday morning. Wish us luck – mainly because the kiddos will be in round 1! Eek, I hope they cooperate. Correction: I hope Timmy cooperates…Chloe is perfect! :) P.S. Have I mentioned my awesome photographer? http://ellmanimages.blogspot.com/

I'll hopefully be posting again sooner than later regarding my recent DIY adventure! Pinterest is great fun and it has inspired some original ideas of my own, so I'll post pictures and a tutorial of some sort soon!

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Another week has come and gone....time seems to be flying by lately and it seems like there is ALWAYS so much to do!

I'm not going to lie; it's been a bit of a stressful week! Brandon and I have been talking about making a move to Northwest Arkansas. Without getting into all the details of it, we've talked quite a bit about it and it seems as if it could be a good move for us. There are tons of jobs in the area, but turns out,  out-of-state hiring isn't ideal for most employers. It's been an interesting experience so far, but we're just scratching the surface of it. Still doing some research, checking out places we could live, etc, so we'll see what happens. Between that, work, pups, trying to maintain a social life, planning a baby shower and planning a wedding, I'm not too proud to say it's kind of kicking my butt right now. But, it's a part of life and I'm excited to see where it all leads.

Yes, I did mention a baby shower in the mix. My best friend Mary has a bun in the oven! Come October I'll be self-acclaimed, honorary Aunt Lisa to Andrew Keith Stagner, aka Andy! I hate living so far from her for this whole experience and I can't wait to see her at the shower in August! My sister and I made the invitations and they look fantastic! I'll have to post pictures of them after the event...Mary doesn't know where the shower is yet, so can't spoil the surprise! ;) It's been a nice distraction from wedding planning though and I'm really excited to see it all come together! Don't get any ideas, but baby stuff is so much fun to look at!

It's been a week of friends and family too. On Tuesday night I got to go to dinner with my friend Amanda and her son Landon (my Godson). It's incredible how fast he is growing up and he somehow manages to get cuter and cuter every time! I can't believe he'll be 1 soon! It was great catching up and I got to see Amanda's new cassia. OMG! Hello gorgeous house!!

My cousin is in town this weekend. We hung out with my mom and sisters on Friday night and then stayed up until 4am catching up. Just like when we were kids. Saturday we took our "neighborhood grandma" and met up with my mom's friend and her mother and went to play bingo! My mom invited us to go, so we figured, why not? Out of the 6 of us, we didn't win a penny! Got close a bunch, but no luck. It was a lot of fun though! Some of those people mean serious business! I had no idea how advanced bingo has become - they now have electronic computer tabs that more or less play for you. You only have to hit one button every time a number is called....I figure sooner or later they'll have an app you can download at the bingo hall and you can just play on your phone!

Mom and Adida

Beth and her mom,  Florence

These people seriously had like 12 machines between the 4 of them, but hey, they won 3 or 4 times!

What can I say? I'm easily impressed...

After our adventures in bingo, we went out for dinner and some karaoke with the gals. Pictures will come soon!

On a random side note, my new favorite app is Instagram! Follow me: larosso06! I'm pretty sure everyone knows about it by now, but if you don't get it! A picture I took today with my phone inspired the title of today's post! :)

Life is just a bowl of cherries! :)

Our watch dog!

This doesn't happen often...had to snap a pick!

Time to get this day going! Can't wait to see Harry Potter this afternoon...the end is going to be so bittersweet!!!! (Go ahead with the nerd jokes...I can handle it! ;) )