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.

my grievances with the wedding industry

let me just say this.  i know that weddings are expensive.  i was prepared for that.  it is the AMOUNT of expensive-ness for which i was unprepared.  i have, on several occasions, had to refrain from laughing in people's faces when we came to the portion of the appointment when they tell you how much they plan to charge you for providing their services.

now let me also say... there are certain wedding services in which i understand the necessity for a higher price.  one would expect to pay a lot for food, for instance.  food costs money.  and anyone who has been to the grocery store or eaten at a restaurant knows that you should be prepared to pay a little more for food.  wedding dresses, are another fine example.  they're awesome, and should be priced according to the amount of their awesomeness.  i had no problem with the price of my wedding dress, as it is the most awesome wedding dress ever.  you'll see.

that being said... there are certain wedding services in which those providing them, obviously have some sort of plan to force the general public to begin taking out 30 year fixed-rate mortgages in order to pay for them.  allow me to highlight a few which i found to be the most obnoxiously over-priced.  

flowers.  they LITERALLY grow right out of the ground.  the only portion of the flower industry which i might understand charging for, would be the time it takes to grab a pair of flower scissors, or whatever it is they use, and snip them off the ground.  if you really plan on charging me so much for them, why don't you just give ME a pair of scissors and point me in the direction of the nearest field of peonies and i'll do it myself.  survey says? overpriced.

for my next example, i'd like to talk about cakes.  if i were running the cake industry, here's how i would determine how much a wedding cake should cost.  i would drive to my local grocery store, buy 3 or 4, maybe 5 of those $15 cakes, and then go home, take them out of their boxes, and stack them on top of each other. voila... a wedding cake.   so according to the standard set by the grocery stores of america, a wedding cake should cost... at the most... 75 bucks.  for those of you who are right now wondering to yourselves "how much more expensive than that are they?"... here is the answer. a lot.

so if three or so months from now, you find yourself sitting at our wedding reception... i hope to God that you are thinking to yourself "this is the best (censored) wedding cake i've ever had".  it certainly ought to be.

The inner-workings of my brain

My dear friend Ashley, whom I love and respect not only as a person, but as a blogger... has taught me the art of "brain-dumping".  As I understand it, it is quite simply the process of spilling the things that happen to be on my mind.  This could prove to be a little scary, because my a.d.d. brain jumps from thought to thought at an impressive rate, but nevertheless I am going to give it a try.  And here they are:

* I am excited to be writing this blog on my newly-acquired mac laptop.

* Maurice will tell you that this isn't my laptop yet, (he is giving it to me, to replace my ailing laptop, because he is getting a new one), but it has been and will here-to-for remain in my possession, which by definition, makes it as good as mine.  

* I am trying not to think about the fact that the wedding is in less than 4 months now, because the wedding planning freaks me out.

* I am NOT freaked out, however, to marry Maurice.  On the contrary... I cannot wait for married life.

* Equally as freak-out worthy is the fact that I don't know yet where we'll be living after we get married.  I don't mean that I don't know which area of town we'll be going apartment hunting in... I mean I don't know which time-zone we'll be apartment hunting in.

* To clarify... the two time-zones up for consideration are eastern, and good ol central standard.

* I am way more into "The Bachelor" than I care to admit.  

* I secretly get really irritated when people suggest that I have a chocolate fountain at our wedding reception.  I am not a fan.

* Lunch from Central Market is the newest love in my life.

* Many people have recommended that I see "Marley and Me", which I fully intend to do, but I want to wait and see it on DVD so that I can cry in the privacy of my own home vs. making a sobbing spectacle of myself in a public movie theater.

* I should definitely be asleep by now, and I'll probably be pretty grumpy tomorrow.

* I've been really disciplined about not spending money on frivolous things, but my mom was given a $20 Starbucks card, and she doesn't drink coffee so it was consequently given to me... and I am really looking forward to stopping in the morning to get the coffee I have missed oh-so-much.

That's enough for now.  Hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Coming up with blog titles is hard

But that's not what this post is about.

I hope that everyone had a great new year's. Maurice and I went to Houston for new year's to visit his sister Ashlie, and we had a really great time. We spent some time with our friends and family there, and even learned how to make tamales from scratch! I was better at it than Maurice was, though he will tell you otherwise :) At any rate, they were scrumptious. We also got to go and visit Rice University, which is one of the schools Maurice has applied to do his masters degree at, and frankly, one that we are both really hoping for, or it's at least near the top of the list. But I digress... we visited the area and checked out the campus and some of the obscenely unaffordable housing in the area, and made a mental note of some places we liked, in the event that we move there in a few months.

We ALSO got to do a few wedding registries while we were there. We registered at Crate & Barrel, since San Antonio STILL doesn't have one, and we also found the mother of all Pottery Barn's and registered there. You can find said registries here and here, by entering one of our names.

And while I'm sending you all on a wild internet goose chase... Maurice has finished re-doing his portfolio website and I recommend that you all check it out and get ready to be impressed! There is alot of his architecture work on there, as well as art and photography and other fun stuff that he's done. You can find it by clicking on this pretty blue word.

Hope that your 2009 is off to a great start!