A planning we will go

The planning is going pretty well considering we still 349 days away, who's counting...
Of the checklist so far we have been able to check off:
1. The date
We will be getting married April 28th, 2012

2. The venue
We have chosen to say "I do" at Postcard Inn on the Beach in St. Pete Beach, FL.  Both the ceremony and the recepetion will be held there.  We will have the ceremony on the beach, barefoot, and dance the night away in their super cute ballroom.

How adorable is their lobby?

  

3. The photographer
The fabulous Brian James (check him out: http://photography.brianjamesgallery.com/portfolio). We are actually having him take our engagement pictures in a couple of weeks and I cannot wait!

4. The officiant
We met with a wonderful pastor this weekend, Pastor Tom Greene, and I am excited for him to share in our special day.

5. The DJ
We are going to with Breezin' Entertainment.  They were on the PCI vender list and then they also happened to be the Bridal Show I went to and they seemed really good.  They also had the best deal to offer us, so we couldn't turn that down. DJing

6. The colors
As of today I think we have our colors pinned down, I should probably keep my mouth shut though, since they have already changed about 4 time, ooops.

I love that I am able to check off some pretty major wedding planning details.  I plan on doing my dress shopping with my mom when I head back to Kansas in June.

All this planning makes me almost wish we were getting married sooner, haha.  I would also like to note the many uses of "we" in this post, every "we" should really read as an "I".  Now Nick has been very supportive, but he likes to think his job is done since he planned out the awesome proposal.  I have not let him off the hook though, he has had to accompany me to every meeting be it the many venue shopping trips, or the one-on-one meetings with the officiant, or the emails with the DJ, he has been by my side with an almost believable "I really want to be here face!"  It stinks planning a wedding far away from my mom, but Nick has ever so kindly stepped up to be the wall I bounce my countless and sometimes ridiculous ideas off of when I am unable to get ahold of my mother on the phone.  I am pumped to go home for a little over a week and really dive into the nitty gritty wedding planning with my mom in a little less than a month!

It's been awhile....

So I thought it was time to update this blog with our big news that has happened since the last time I updated.

On March 12th 2011 Nick tricked me into an overnight beach stay on Anna Maria Island.  We started off the day hanging out on the beach with our KU alum friends, Eric, Lindsey, and Courtney.  Then we went parasailing, which was amazing and nerve wrecking all at the same time.  From about 500 feet about the water we could see downtown St. Petersburg and Sarasota.  After parasailing we headed back to our cottage and got ready for what I thought was to meet up with our friends to watch the Big XII championship; however, that is not what we did.  Instead Nick led me down to the beach where he has secretly set up a sunset beach dinner (with some help).  I was obviously to the entire set up. I saw a couple of photographers and totally thought there was a wedding going on.  Little did I know that Nick was down on  one knee and the photographers were there to capture the entire tearful proposal.  It was such a special night and I can't wait for our April 28, 2012 wedding!

Right as he was proposing- wish I would have know so I would have dressed a bit cuter

Really glad I could be support the Jayhawks at my proposal (only a slight hint of sarcasm)

This is probably my favorite picture from the night.

The photographer was getting fancy with my ring and the coral.

Sometimes you just want to....

BE A ROCK STAR!

Or a total REDNECK!

Over the weekend we helped our friend ring in her 26th year of life.  It was awesome, a little hot, and slightly itchy wearing wigs all night but everyone looked pretty awesome in their wigs!

Partial group shot of all of the lovely ladies who went out.  The birthday girl in the 2nd from the left.

We haven't been up to too much since Christmas, we spent the bulk of the break up in Kansas visiting with family and friends and celebrating Nick's 25th birthday.  

Then I spent the bulk of New Years Eve in 4 different airports, and made it back to Florida an hour and half before midnight ( I was suppose to be back at 5).  We had a low key night of movie watching, pizza eating, and sealing the night off with a midnight kiss.  Now we are back to the grind of working and trying to stay warm in the only state without snow!  

IKEA explosion

I thought it was time to share our new furnishings.  After three long months, we finally got rid of our ugly rental furniture! It was wonderful to be able to move cross country and not worry about furniture, but it sucked not being able to choose what we would be living with.  We had to stick with the rental furniture for three months and the day the three months were up, Nick and I hit up IKEA for a shopping extravaganza.  My parents were kind enough to allot us a sum of money to use towards our furniture purchases aka Christmas and birthday presents for awhile so we didn't have to skimp on anything.

IKEA is my playground, I could spend hours, scratch that days wandering the model rooms and weaving in and out of the rows of boxed up goodies.  I am so glad it is mere minutes from our place, but even if it wasn't I am sure I would still venture there often.  Here is a little looksee of our new goodies starting with the bedroom:

Somebody likes our new bed better than his. Every picture I took of the bed Larry was somewhere on it.

My cute dresser that I do not share with Nick.

The hardest part was choosing the mattress, we spent a good hour or so trying the different mattress.  It is  hard to select one that both parties truly enjoy, but we finally found one.  Next up is the living room. 

Here is our new TV, that we purchased on Black Friday evening along with Larry's picture with Santa and his pile of toys.

Here is our Craig's list couch, giant Comfy Sack, and Larry.  If you can't tell Larry is basically my shadow.  He follows me everywhere, even to the bathroom.

The couch was our first purchase and it is one of the few pieces that isn't from IKEA.  It is actually a Rooms To Go couch, that someone was selling, that is basically brand new.  The Comfy Sack is the greatest thing ever and our newest purchase!  We just got it in the mail a couple of days ago and all three of us love it and can fit on it at one time.  We decided that since we have such small dinning space that we didn't need a dinning room table.  The Comfy Sack actually takes up most of the space for where a table would go anyway.  Last up is the second bedroom/catch all space.

Here is our futon.  Never thought I would buy one of these again, but it really is super functional and not totally hideous.

Here is our original TV, extra storage, and desk. I am not even sure if the TV is plugged in, since we never watch it anymore.

It is so refreshing it have our own stuff to live with now. This furniture is much more our style and a heck of a lot more comfortable!

I'd like to end with our cute little Christmas tree.  My favorite part is the colored paperclips used to hang up the KU colored ornament!

Oh you know

Well it is now November and we are still sitting around wearing shorts and t-shirts, this is the best!

Last weekend was Halloween, which is a favorite of mine!  We had not planned on a cheesy couple costume, but with time running out Nick decided to be Pete Kawk the peacock hunter and I was a cross-dresser/peacock.  I say cross-dresser because the beautiful peacocks are males and I am pretty sure I am female.  My costume was a lot of fun and really easy, minus the fact that I could only go through doors sideways.  We began our night by heading over to the St. Petersburg area for a house party and finished our night at the Venue in Clearwater.  It was great hanging out with friends and shutting down the bar at 3 and chaffering lovely gentlemen around.

Both pictures are "borrowed" from facebook because I totally suck at using my camera.

Poor Larry in his costume as a football.

We spent Sunday at the beach, where else.  We decided to hit up Honeymoon Island out near Clearwater.  The water was warm, the beach was gorgeous, the entrance fee sucked.  I prefer the beaches that have free parking and are free of tourists ( local much?).  I still can't believe it is warm enough to go to the beach!  I am in for a rude awaking this December when I head back to Kansas for 10 days. Good thing the bulk of my warm winter clothes are waiting for me!

I cannot believe there are only three weeks left until Thanksgiving aka Nick's favorite day.  It will be really weird not spending it with my family, but I think we will survive.  The current game plan is to celebrate with some of coworkers who are also transplants down here.  I think it will be a lot fun, but I am really sad to be missing the Plaza Lights with Paul's family as well as with our friends Ted and Allison.  I think the Plaza will have to be one of my first stops when I get home over Christmas just so I can soak up the beauty of the lights!

I am so glad that November brings KU basketball.  I am not a football fan and with as pathetic as the team has been preforming I am more than ready to cheer on my Jayhawks in basketball!  Now if only Allen Field House could relocate to Tampa I would be in heaven!  RCJH!

It has been a while...

Wow I can't believe it is already October.  Where has the time gone?  It appears that it has almost been a month since I have updated the blog so I should let you all in on what we have been doing lately.

We are still playing the tourist cards and hitting up random touristy events.  A couple of weeks ago we went out with some friends to a small Oktoberfest in St. Petersburg.  It was long and fun day filled with pumpkin flavored beer and board games.

Here is the one picture we have from the event that was "borrowed" from a friend's facebook.

We have also been hitting up the beach and dog beach as much as possible since we now Florida's fall/winter is on the way.  It is actually kind of funny how acclimated we have already become to Florida.  On most mornings I leave for work around 6:45 and the temperature is between 65-70 degrees and I have been freezing and wearing a jacket every day :).

On Friday we went to Busch Gardens with one of my coworkers for Howl-O-Scream.  It was super fun and pretty scary.  It was a good thing Katie and I both had Nick to grab onto in the different haunted houses.  I am pretty sure the scariest part with the tall creepy alien monsters that would get right in your face.  I wish I had pictures from the night, but with all of the roller coasters taking you upside down I left my camera in the locker.  

Yesterday we met up with our friend Brian from back home, who was in town with his junior college XC team he helps coach at Downtown Disney.  It was so great to actually see one of our friends from KS, we're going to count that as our first Kansas visitor. Here are some pictures from our touristy trip to DTD.

It is still hard to believe that we live in such a crazy busy state.  I love how we are so close to so many attractions and beaches and fun venues.  We are looking forward to all of the upcoming touristy events Florida has to offer :).

A month and some change

It has been a little over a month since we moved down here, and it still feels like a wonderful vacation.  We have hit up the aquarium, Busch Gardens, a handful of beaches, a Bucs game, a Rays game, and watched 2 totally different KU football games with fellow alums, yet there are still so many things we need to see and do.

A lot has happened within this short amount of time.  I have begun work doing exactly what I am suppose to be doing.  I absolutely love my job, my speech kids, and the school and staff behind me.  I have a wonderfully helpful CF supervisor and colleague.  I actually enjoy waking up at the crack of dawn when it is still dark out to go to work, I must be growing up.

In other job related news, Nick has a JOB!  Oh do I love saying those words.  He will be working for a good company with a lot of growth potential.  He is more than ready to get out of the apartment and start working.

In between being tourists and beach bums we have adopted a little furry one.  His name is Larry after the great city of Lawrence and he is a terrier mix.  He is about 9 months old and a total cuddle bug.  He has made himself right at home.  His favorite thing to do when we are not home and is to find any article of our clothing and bring it to cuddle with.  We keep finding single flip flops, socks, and shirts wedged into the cracks of the couch and chair.  He also enjoys playing with the neighbors kitten and hitting up the doggie beach.

This month has flown by and we are looking forward to many more.

 

Pirate at the Bucs v Chiefs game.

View from our seats.

Rays v Red Sox game.

Larry

 

Larry in "his" chair