Check list- 3 months out

Yup, only 3 months and it will be our wedding day! :) So exciting! But I should probably look at my wedding to-do list... hmmmm...

[here is my old version]

Done:

• Wedding dress (from the Princess Bridal)
• Venues for ceremony (WCPC) and reception (Amerigo's)
• Bakery (Kiss the Cook Cakes) [Though I need to post the sketch of our cake]
• Photographer (Kasey Lynn Photography) [The above links talk about her]
• Booked floral and continued to freak out over flowers, here and here
• Picked the suit stuff (Men's Wearhouse)
• Invites (for a later post)
• Save-the-Dates
• Premarital counseling, number 1 and number 2
• Honeymoon resort ressies
• Picked bridesmaids and groomsmen
• Rehearsal Dinner venue booked, canceled, and booked new location (I will blog about this one day, promise!)
• Bridesmaid Dresses
• Engagement pictures
• Bridesmaids gifts, to be blogged about post-wedding
• [Decided on] Groomsmen gifts
• Chose ceremony music (for future blog post)
• Dress fittings (number 1 & number 2)
• Hair 
• Honeymoon dining reservations (part 1 and 2) 
• Other Honeymoon details
• Wedding day transportation
• Registered
• Website (for future post)
• Wedding rings  

To Do:

• Bridal portraits (I have a date set)
• Finalize make-up (read about that here)
• Mail invites
• Premarital Counseling, session 3 (appointment made)
• Ceremony programs
• Finalize guest book
• Choose reception music & food
• Set schedule for the day

Hmmm... that doesn't look too bad! Anyone see anything I'm missing??

Could it be??

In extremely happy news, (no, I have not heard back from ANY grad school yet) my thesis may actually be done!!!

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Source; Can you identify these chaps? Hint: they're my fav

 Besides writing a 350-word abstract and doing whatever citation edits the thesis office wants, I'm pretty much DONE!!! It is a 75-pg monstrosity and I am so proud of my baby. [Yes, it's my baby. I have worked on it since August, it might as well be a baby!]

The best part-- it isn't due for another MONTH. I have a reason for being an over-achiever, though, promise! As I am presenting my research over spring break, the conference people wanted a paper version. And of course they didn't want my insanely long thesis. So, by March 1, I had to compile a shortened version of it. My advisor and I completed the analyses [mainly my advisor, those statistical tests are complicated!] so I could finish writing the thesis while simultaneously compiling a shortened version for the conference. About a month ago I had 1 chapter to finish and 2 that were completely untouched.

{*phew*}

But, it's done. The conference paper is mostly done, just have to proof it one last time. Now to start working on the powerpoint. How the heck do you consolidate 75 pages of info into a 10 min presentation (including a Q&A)???  

Meh, I'll figure that out later. Now to reward myself with some frozen yogurt...

A weekend full of laughter and cuteness

This has been a great and productive weekend, one of my favorites! I went to an organizational retreat Friday night, where we just laughed all night, along with some work. But, it was a blast! Can't believe it was my last one! :( Saturday night Matt & I went to Jurassic Park: the Musical! It is literally what it sounds like, the story of Jurassic Park, put to music and comedy. Pretty amazing!

After church and boring school work, my parents did the best thing ever. They drove themselves, a standard poodle, and a 10-week old puppy 3 hours round trip! The excuse was for me to sign some health form, but I know that it was really so I could meet Molly! 

Awwwww

It was a blast to see the dogs playing together and then getting to play with them. Just what I needed in the middle of this craziness! Now, before I post more pictures, I need a disclaimer...

DISCLAIMER: What you are about to see may look like I have 'the baby face.' Please do not think anything more than the fact that I love dogs immensely and cute little puppies just happen to steal my heart faster than anything else. I know I want dogs in my future abode, unsure of everything else. 

There, that's done. On with the pictures!

I just love her

My dad holding Molly with Gigi the standard poodle

Playing in the grass

As you can see, both dogs are a bundle of cuteness and it was a great evening! Now to conquer this week...

Little bit of counting down...

• 100 days until the wedding.
• 85 days until graduation.
• 78 days until my last final [as an undergrad].
• 36 days until my thesis is due.
• 27 days until I leave to present my thesis in Las Vegas.

OK, at least in the next 85 days, Matt & I will know where we're living, where I'll be going to grad school, where he'll have a job, etc.


Yeah, that's what I'll focus on...

I got some fessin' up to do

As I'm procrastinating from working on my thesis, I thought of some secrets to share with the blogging world.

I am addicted to looking at wedding pictures on Facebook. It does not matter if I know them or not. Friend of a friend of a friend who I just happen to see their pictures? I am all over it.

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I am looking forward to the honeymoon at Disney World way more than I am the wedding.

Personal photo

The more I think about it, the more I wish we had planned to have a smaller, simpler wedding. All the flowers, music, programs, food, etc is stressing me out way more than necessary.

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When I watch David Tutera, I cry during every single ceremony. Lord knows I'll be crying at my own.

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If I could chose to live anywhere in the world, it would be Germany. Munich, to be exact. Love that city!

Personal photo

OK, there are a few of mine. Do you have any to share??

Poor trash can...

[Two posts in 1 day!?!? Shocker, I know!]

A&M's has an immense amount of construction going on all the time. Is anyone else's campus like that? Anyway, they just recently put up some new fences around certain grassy areas. As a sidenote, I don't really know why they put up this particular fence, but moving on... 


The specific fence in question happened to enclose a trashcan. So, being the clever college students Aggies are, here are the results:

 I think my personal favorite is "President Loftin, Tear down this wall!" But of course "Do not free! Zombie Can! Do not free! Free at own risk! Do not Free!" is pretty good, too.
 

Week(end) recap

Howdy everyone! Hope your week has gotten off to a good start!

Per the new normal, I didn't get to post much last week. Silly school getting in the way... but I do have some things to share with you!

Matt & I (mostly Matt) have a strong attraction for muffins. We/he love our baked goods. One of the blogs I follow posted this amazing recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. Of course we made them Saturday and wow, let me tell you, they're pretty much the best thing ever! Seriously, you should go make them ASAP.

Here are some pictures from that adventure...

Have to have the oven picture

He was excited!

Om nom nom!!!

In other exciting news, my parents got a puppy! Molley (yes, with an 'e') is a 2 month old German Shepherd mix. After my standard poodle, she is the most adorable thing ever, or so the pictures say. I hate that I'm so busy and can't randomly drive home to meet her, but hopefully my parents and the two dogs will be able to come up next weekend. Crossing my fingers!!

Photo Credit: My dad; Say it with me: awwww

So besides an immense amount of thesis work and other homework, that was about my weekend. Hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day!

3 years!

As I alluded to in my Friday post, Matt had planned a surprise date-day for me this Saturday. Why? We were celebrating our three year anniversary. The official day is actually today, but being a weekday, we decided to celebrate the occasion early. Earlier in the week, he had printed out this very official looking schedule with key words, events, and locations blacked out. All I knew was that the first thing started at 8:00 AM and then there was a second event at 8:15. The third event started at 5 PM, followed by two subsequent events. 

At 8 AM, Matt shows up outside my door with these beautiful roses!

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Please excuse the make-shift vase. We don't have a real one, but the A&M cup is really growing on me!

After learning just what to do with roses (trimming, water levels, etc), he took me to breakfast for kolaches! Sorry no pictures, but they were delicious!

We came back and because we are college students, had to spend the rest of the day-time working. My motivation was so low because I was so excited to see what he had planned for the evening! All I knew was to be ready by 5 and there was a formal dress code. After spending about twenty minutes trying to figure out what to wear, I decided on this:
 

Please excuse the messy hair and whatnot; that is NOT me all ready

And promptly at 5 PM, Matt shows up all dressed up, we compliment each other at how well we clean up, and then he proceeds to give me this:
 

A Citizen Eco-Drive watch!

Several months ago I had given him his wedding gift (absurdly early, I know, but he had a need for it!), a decent luggage set. Because we're practical like that. And he knew I had been wanting a good watch (i.e. not the cheap digital ones) and voila, he got this gorgeous one!

So after posing for a picture (thanks Kara!), we were on our way to an unknown location...

After purposefully confusing me, using weird and indirect routes to the restaurant, we finally show up at Christopher's! For you non-Aggie readers, this is the best restaurant in College Station. Uber nice & uber amazing! We proceeded to eat WAAAAY too much food, but it was completely worth it. Here are our desserts:

Berries Napoleon, with Godiva white chocolate cream!

Matt's favorite bread pudding, complete with apples, cinnamon, and raisins

For those of you keeping track, that was only Event #4. So what was the 5th surprise? It was supposed to be to take a walk around campus. But since it was pretty chilly, we decided to skip out on that. Instead, we went back to the apartment, changed, and watched Casablanca. 

Basically, it was an amazing day/night-- very relaxing and very fun. I am so blessed to have Matt in my life and can't believe we'll be getting married in a little under 4 months! :) 

May the Force be with You, Honey

As I discussed here, here, and here , Matt & I are going to Disney World for our Honeymoon. Well, it was just announced that we will also be there for...

STAR WARS WEEKEND!

We are not the world's largest Star Wars fans, but we do enjoy the films. So at Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM Studios), there will be various Star Wars characters, in addition to some stars from the films.

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You know I CANNOT wait to see this! Source

  For any of you who have been to WDW before, I'm sure you know Star Tours, a motion simulator ride. Well, they're updating it now and it will open right before we get there. So whoop for a new ride, too! Dancing Darth Vader and a new ride?? Not sure how I can contain myself! 

And now to leave you with a Star Wars related video... ain't he cute?!?

 

It's Friday!

Just in case you didn't know... ha!

If you have been living under a rock as of late, everywhere in the US seems to be getting lots of snow. Well, early this morning College Station finally joined the ranks. Looks like we've gotten a whole inch thus far! But it was enough to daily classes til 11:30! Of course I don't have class on Fridays, but still. 

And because this video speaks the complete truth, I had to share. Listen, please.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Matt & I are celebrating our three year anniversary tomorrow. He won't tell me at all what he's planned, so I'm pretty excited to see what happens! I'll be sure to update you later!