Sunday, October 25, 2009

Well Well Well

Oh my! It's been a week since my last post! Well Where do I start...
Tuesday was my last day at work. My boss was very kind and wrote a letter of recommendation for me to give to prospective employers. :-)
Wednesday I did a bunch of running around, and my Grandma is visiting family in San Diego so I met her down there and stayed the night.
On Thursday morning we got up early and went down to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego for Steve's graduation from Recruiters' Course. Hooray it's over! And he looked handsome in his dress blues. :-) We all went out to lunch afterwards at Fillippi's and had some delicious hot-from-the-oven pizza! Yumm yumm!
Steve and I then had some running around to do but over the course of Thursday afternoon and Friday we:
Took my engagement ring in to be sized and repaired (one of the prongs was bent) and bought wedding bands.
Purchased a whole bunch of ribbons, buttons, and the like for Steve's uniforms that he'll need when we go to Alabama.
Went to his bank to add me to his account (no job=no income for me!)
Picked up our marriage license.
Reserved the hotel rooms where our parents will be staying the night before we get married.
Packed for our trip to Wisconsin.
And had a birthday party for me/going away party for us on Saturday!
Thank you to everyone who came to the party and to everyone who sent their happy birthday wishes! It was a happy birthday indeed!
:-)
We're off to Wisconsin for a week starting tomorrow. I'll try and keep posting!
<3

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are???

I took my 10 year old sister to see the new movie Where the Wild Things Are tonight. It was a favorite book of mine when I was kid and my sister has read the book as well. Except the movie wasn't at all what I expected. It was just so strange. I don't remember the book well enough to remember the exact story line, but I remembered enough to recognize the characters. It was just so unsettled in their little monster community. And when things went wrong they acted irrationally and child-like. One monster was even really violent throwing things and punching walls. It made me think: what kind of lesson is this for kids who go to see the movie? And then when the movie was over, I felt like there wasn't really a resolution to the problem. It was all just really bizarre. I thought kids movies are supposed to be happy?
My movie rating: Rent It.
Did anyone else think the same thing about this movie? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
<3 Hilabee

Exhausted.

My mom and I just finished up the yard sale. We did ok. Many people came by and we got rid of most of the big stuff. We had quite a bit of stuff left over, but we just wanted to get it out of the house and it's all been taken to Goodwill. We are both drained of energy though. It's about 94 today. Blahhhh.
Snack and nap time yippee!
<3 Hilabee

Friday, October 16, 2009

Yard Sale Weekend!

Hooray! It's always feels so cleansing getting rid of stuff you haven't used in months. I'll be hauling about 5 boxes of stuff up to my mom's house so we can have a big yard sale and get rid of some extra stuff so A) my parents' garage is not so full (I still have alot of stuff in there, but I'm getting rid of the majority of it!), and B) so I don't have to move stuff I don't need across the country. I'll be putting out some great stuff:
Calphalon toaster oven from college
10 galllon aquarium with lighted hood & some set up
25 gallon reptarium with locking screened lid and set up for a turtle
Hamster habitat
Costume jewelry
Clothes
Clothes
Clothes
Shoes
Shoes
Shoes
A few small lamps
A bed-in-a-bag (Full)
2 rugs
2 sheet sets (Full)
Handbags
Laptop bag
A blanket
*Possibly* my snow board. I'm not sure that I want to part with it. :-(
Plus more of my family's stuff!
Woooo I cant wait to get up SUPER early hahaha!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

So much to do, So little time

I'm beginning to feel the pressure of all our upcoming events. I feel like I have so many things to take care of, and not enough time to do them in. But I guess that's life sometimes. I know in the end it's all going to be worth the effort, I just cant wait for that time to come!

Heather and Brock's photographer, Melissa Palomo, posted a blog entry with pictures from their wedding so check it out if you would like to see some of their professional photos! They are simply beautiful! A couple just made my breath catch and I had to remember to exhale... :-)
Melissa Palomo: http://melissapalomo.com/blog/

Tonight's entry is short but sweet, I need sleep!

Goodnight!
<3 Busy-as-a-Hilabee

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Congratulations to Heather and Brock!

Oh man it's been almost a week since my last post?!?! Sorry for the slacking, I'll try to keep up better. :-(
Here's some pictures from Heather and Brock's wedding on October 10th! Congratulations you guys on your marriage and your wonderful wedding!


Me and my honey! <3>

Heather's last night as a free woman! Leah and Larry opened their cabin to the bridal party for the weekend. Thank you thank you thank you!

Let me just say, this has to be one of the most beautiful pictures ever taken! Heather looks so happy, not to mention the *perfect* lighting makes her look like an angel!

Saying their "I do's," they had a sand ceremony and exchanged rings in a short but sweet ceremony overlooking Lake Arrowhead.

Heather's bridal party from left to right: Jenny, Me, Brock's younger sister Brenna, Jax, Leah, Jr. bridesmaid Maddie, and Matron of Honor Heather's older sister Melissa, sort of cut off... sorry. :-(

Brock's guys from left to right: Best Man Steven, Heather's brother Adam, Brock's brothers Bram, Brian, and Beau, and Ameer.

JUST MARRIED! Hooray!

Adam and Leah.

Jax and Bram.

Me and Beau.

Jenny and Ameer.

Hiiii!

Jenny took over as bartender, the bartender was only hired for a couple hours.


Cutting the cake... they were very nice. No cake smashing on the face, just a little finger of frosting on the nose.

Heather and Jenny.

Yup we done it. Converse under our dresses at the reception! And thank goodness! SOOOOO much more comfortable!

Jenny and her hubby Nate. Expecting baby #1!

Joelle caught the bouquet!

Blowing kisses!

Dancin!

Oh man who had to go and ruin this perfectly good picture of Jenny?!?! I'll never tell... ;-)
Me and Jenny. :-)
I hope you all enjoyed the photos. Thank you Jenny for these pictures, as I was too lame to remember to bring my own camera to the occasion. Doh!
<3>

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

An Update

Hello everyone!
I thought I'd take the time today to give everyone more updated information about me and Steve: about our engagement as well as our upcoming move to Alabam-y!

The Move:
Steve and I will be moving together to Alabama probably sometime mid-week during the second week of November (the week of Veteran's Day). We wanted to allow ourselves plenty of time to get into a place and get settled before he has to report for his first day as a Marine Corps Recruiter on November 30th. We are going to need to buy some furniture and get all of our stuff unpacked! I'm sad to be leaving so soon, but I'm also very excited for us to be starting a life together. I couldn't be happier. :-)

The Engagement:
Steve and I will be having a Justice of the Peace wedding before we move to Alabama. We are also planning to have a real wedding back in California in a year or so (perhaps on our anniversary) for everyone to celebrate with us.

Our decision for me to leave with him now is based on a few reasons and our options (or lack of, I guess) for our wedding.
1. We both agreed that we want to come back to California to have our wedding. While we discussed the option of me staying here for a few extra months to plan the wedding, he won't have an opportunity to take leave from recruiting any time in the next few months to come back to CA and go on a honeymoon. When it comes down to it, I just didn't want to be away from Steve for any extended period of time staying behind to plan the wedding.

2. It would have been near impossible, not to mention stressful, to throw together a wedding in such a short amount of time. I don't want to have a wedding that seems "thrown together" and would rather take the time to plan it exactly how we would like it. Now I realize it's going to be difficult to plan a wedding from across the country, but we've discussed choosing a venue before we move, and I have already had several offers for help with planning out here in CA.

In order to give us plenty of time to prepare for our move, I have already turned in my notice at my job, and my last day there will be OCtober 20th. Steve's graduation from recruiter's course is on the 22nd, and then we'll be flying out to visit my family in Wisconsin for a week on October 26th. After that it will be pack, get married, move! Yippee!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Bachelorette Par-T for Heather

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend, it was full to the brim! I went to Heather's bachelorette party over the weekend! We had a great time, and it was also Heather's birthday so it was double the fun. Jackie made us all sashes and used paint to write on them with pink and black and even designed pink cheetah hearts on them (Heather's favorite)! Here are of few of the most non-incriminating photos ;-)...


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Here are our lovely sashes! Unfortunately most of them didn't make it to the end of the night.


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Keeping Heather complany while she finished gettin ready. Tee Hee!


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Us girls! "It's her birthday AND her bachelorette party!!!!"


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Jax and I testing our short do's shake-ability. Yes, I'm aware that I appear to be smelling my armpit. Just in case you were curious, it was flowery-fresh. :-)


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Busted! Haha these old-style cops were standing in front of the paddy wagon and happened to have a ball-and-chain!


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Dinner at Hard Rock.


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These stunna shades belonged to a guy in the group of Marines at the table next to us in the karaoke bar. They made the rounds.


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Well that's it for today, I'm beat. I'll post again tomorrow!
<3 Hilabee

Thursday, October 1, 2009

October already?

Where HAS the time gone? It's already October!?!?! Sheesh!
I had the day off of work today, so I went to the grocery store for some food, since my refrigerator stock had dwindled to some eggs and a bottle of mustard (practically). I picked up some fixins to make some good home-made crock pot beef stew to kick off the fall season! My mom gave me a small two-serving crock pot a few months ago, and I had yet to use it. My roommate was given some potatoes (slightly odd, no???) and she told me to feel free to use some, so I thought stew would be perfect!
I bought some baby carrots, canned beef broth, pre-cut stewing beef, and an onion. I threw in the beef, chopped up about 1/3 of the onion, tossed in some baby carrots, 1 cut-up potato, a dash of minced garlic, some garlic salt and pepper, oregano, and some extra salt since I'd discovered I'd bought low sodium broth and I was concerned about the bland-ness factor. I was going to be fancy and put in a bay leaf, but I had none, so I skipped it. I stirred it all up, set the crock pot on high, and made a sandwich for lunch.
A couple hours later, I went in the check on the stew and give it a little stir and found: UGH! FLIES! ON MY STIRRING SPOON! I switched to seek-and-destroy mode with the fly swatter and smashed count 'em *7* flies! I even batted one in mid-air and it's butt end got stuck in the holes of the fly swatter and he squirmed until I smashed the next fly with him still wedged. I hate bugs! Hate hate hate them! Gross! Disgusting creatures. Argh I hear another one as I write now flying around in the window behind me. Where are they all coming from?!?!?
So anyway, after I took care of the flies, I got a CLEAN spoon and stirred my stew and it is coming along beatifully!
Did I mention my whole house smells delicious?!?!