And the winner is...

San Antonio.

That's right, after much thought, prayer and consideration, Maurice and I decided that spending another year in San Antonio and getting on our feet was the best option.  The decision not to go to Philadelphia was a tremendously difficult one for both of us.  It was hard for Maurice especially, to close the door on such a wonderful opportunity.  We really loved it there, and I still get a little sad when I think about not moving there... but at the end of the day, we are still totally confident that we made the right decision.  We both have great jobs here and we just got a fantastic first apartment, which Maurice will be moving into in a few days.  And! the wedding is just a WEEK away!  I truthfully have no idea where the time has gone, I felt like I blinked my eyes and it was here.  

There have been a few disappointments in our lives lately, that we didn't expect, but that is life.  We are SO excited that the wedding is almost here, we are counting down the days to our honeymoon, we're ready and anxious to start our life together, and we have not lost sight of the fact that God has blessed us beyond what we deserve.  

Since this next week will be so wild, I will likely not be back to blogging until after the wedding/honeymoon.  For those of you who are coming to the wedding, we can't wait to see you very soon! and for those of you who can't, there will of course be pictures up soon of the wedding and honeymoon... all that good stuff.  

Hope you all have a lovely week!

no... we still do not know

OK folks... so as some of you know by now, the last few weeks have been extremely stressful for maurice and myself.  Not only is the wedding less than a month away now, but we STILL do not know where we're going to be living.  A few weeks ago, our options seemed to be Philadelphia and Houston (you may remember them as option #1 and option #2).  Well for reasons beyond our control, I am sad to inform you supporters of the latter that Houston is no longer on the table o' consideration.  

That left Philadelphia.  As soon as we found out that Houston was out of the running, we booked the next 2 flights out to Philadelphia, because there was much work to be done.  To give you a little background, here is the dilemma:  Maurice was accepted into the Master of Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania. The catch is... they want him in their 3 year program. But UPenn is an ivy league school, and those ivy leaguers sure are proud of their schools, and they do charge accordingly.  Translation: UPenn is ungodly amounts of expensive.  As honored as Maurice was to be accepted, and as wonderful an opportunity as it would be for him... the loans for 3 years of grad school would be a tremendous burden for us... and we aren't sure that we want our first official act as a married couple to be taking out school loans in an amount that would buy us a reasonably nice home in many areas.  

So long story short, we are weighing our options right now with Philadelphia.  The chair of the architecture department is also reviewing Maurice's portfolio, to see if he can be admitted into the 2 year program.  We are hoping to hear something very very soon.  If we do not go to Philadelphia, we have decided to stay in San Antonio for another year, before we decide where would be best for us.  

We DID get the opportunity to visit Philadelphia, and we absolutely fell in love with it.  I think we'd both heard mixed reviews on the city and weren't entirely sure what to expect, but we were both pleasantly surprised.  It's such a beautiful city, it's extremely rich in history, it seems like they have the most beautiful parks every few blocks, and the UPenn campus is indescribable.  We packed a lot of sight-seeing, campus-visiting, and apartment-hunting into our few days there, and we had a great time.  

So until we have some news about where we are or are not moving, here are some pictures from our trip to hold you over!

This is us in the park behind independence hall, on a very chilly afternoon.

Independence Hall... the birthplace of America.

Oh look, another beautiful park.  Rittenhouse square.

the UPenn campus

And of course.... Anthropologie.

Lots of showery goodness

So believe it or not, the wedding is just a little over a month away now, and Maurice and I are so excited for it to be here.  And of course, this also means that shower season has been in full swing. We've had wedding showers the last two weekends, had a wonderful time, and now I'm here to share pictures with you!

The first shower was last weekend.  My mom and my best friend from college, Tiffany, threw me a lovely shower at our house with a lot of family.  Tiffany lives in Dallas and is married with two little boys, and so we don't get to see eachother nearly as often as we'd like.  It was such a great weekend having her in town, we got to do a little shopping, go out for drinks, and spend some great quality time together.

And she and my mom did such a great job putting the shower together.

Me with my sisters (my matron of honor and maid of honor) at the shower

Then this past weekend, it was on to Gruene for a couple's shower at Tavern in the Gruene with a lot of Maurice's family and friends.

Maurice's sister Ashlie (on the far left) was the mastermind and planner extraordinaire behind the whole shower, she was so fantastic and generous to do this for us.  But of course, she had a lot of great help from some family, like Maurice's Aunt Peggy and his cousin Kelly, who worked hard all afternoon helping to put everything together.

Lauren came!  How appropriate to have the person there who introduced us.  She is such a neat person, and I was so glad that she was there.

And once the shower wrapped up, we all headed down the road to Gruene Hall and listened to live music and had a great time!  

Both of the showers were so much fun, and we really appreciate all the people who so generously put them together for us, and to everyone who came.  The only down side, is that I know have so many gifts and boxes stacked up in my room, I'm running out of places to put them all!

and for those of you who are still wondering the results of my last post... we still do not know for sure where we are going to be moving... the options have narrowed down a little more, but they've also changed a little :)  We should know something very very soon, and we will definitely update you when we do.

A little hint at things to come...

Well as most of you know... Maurice and I have been anxiously waiting to figure out where we will be moving as soon as we get married, and while we still don't know for sure yet, the options have been significantly narrowed down.  There are two major considerations at this point, and a few minor backup considerations, so I decided that in asking all of you to continue to pray for us as we make a very big decision, that I would also give you folks a little hint as to what the final two options are looking like at this point.  And here are your hints:

"It's always sunny in option #1."

and

"Option #2, we have a problem."

Laurie and Justin Engagement Photos

So these are a little old now, but a few months back, I had the privilege of taking engagement photos for my sweet friend Laurie and her fiance Justin.  One would have hoped for a sunnier (and warmer!) day for taking pictures, but I thought they came out really cute.  And now I'm sharing a few of my favorites with you nice folks.  enjoy!

25 questions... the relationship version

well I suppose that in my book, answering 25 questions is better than trying to come up with 25 things about us on my own, so here you have it... the anti-"25 things".  

1. What are your middle names?

Nicole and Edward

2. How long have you been together?

since April/May-ish of 2007

3. How long did you know eachother before you started dating?

around 4 months

4. Who asked whom out?

maurice asked me out... he had it bad for me

5. Whose siblings do you see the most?

probably mine, because they live closest. but we still see Ashlie quite a bit.

6. Do you have any children together?

nope... one day

7. What about pets?

nope... one day

8. What is hardest on you as a couple?

definitely waiting to see what our next move is gonna be... literally

9. Are you from the same town?

yes... the general san antonio area, at least

10. Did you go to any of the same schools?

no

11. Who is the most sensitive?

definitely me

12. Where do you eat out most as a couple?

we love trying new places, but whataburger usually wins if we can't think of anyplace else.

13. Where is the farthest you've traveled together?

new york! and pretty soon.. riviera maya, mexico

14. Who has the craziest exes?

HA... I shouldn't answer this, but I'm going to.  him.

15. Who has the worst temper?

maurice... but only in traffic

16. Who does the cooking?

we both like to cook

17. Who is more social?

that kind of depends, but generally me, I think

18. Who is the neat-freak?

MAURICE

19. Who is more stubborn?

that could be both of us... but probably me :)

20. Who hogs the bed?

no comment

21. Who wakes up earlier?

Maurice, but I'm getting better

22. Where was your first date?

Stonewerks, I believe

23. Who has the bigger family?

probably Maurice

24. Do you get flowers often?

often enough 

25. How long did it take to get serious?

not very long!

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

I may not be Maria from the Sound of Music, but in much the same way, I would like to share with you some of my very favorite things in the world... or at least on the internet.  

So while brown paper packages tied up with strings are all well and good, here are a few of my favorite things:

- Lemon Tree Paperie.  One of my absolute favorites.  It may not be quite as marvelous as Kate's Paperie in New York, but you'll find lots of quirky little necessities that you won't find at Kate's.  Take the time to check out the personalized notepads with clipboards, cause they're just so darn cute, and they make great gifts!

- DSW. Because shoes are the best.  What I love about DSW is the sheer affordability of their shoes, as well as the pitter patter you feel in your heart when you walk into one of their stores and behold rows upon rows of cheap designer shoes.  I personally think their logo should read: "DSW... because every girl should have a fantastic pair of yellow shoes."

- The SuzyJack 2009 Calendar.  Because it's really cute.

- Cool laptop sleeves.  Because laptops are expensive and scratches suck.  

- Great cookbooks.  Every girl should have a cookbook that, in the event of one of those inevitable bad days, has pages and pages of recipes to get you through it.