engagement pictures

A few weeks ago Lincoln and I had our engagement pictures taken by the lovely and talented Amanda Eaton.  I loved her use of natural light and found her originally on another blog that I follow, Lemon and Lavender. 

After our initial meeting I knew that we'd hit it off because we shared a love of pretty paper, folders and pinterest. :)

After the first few awkward photos, Lincoln and I started to get the hang of things and we had quite a few (207 to be exact) pictures to choose from!  Here are a few of our faves:

ch-ch-ch changes.

I think that's a song right? Who knows...I try to make everything a song.

I've been seriously slacking on blogging lately.  People have asked if something was wrong with their browser...that maybe things weren't updating like they should or something. Nope...it's just me...not writing over here.

I'd like to partially blame Lincoln for my writing hiatus.  You see, before I met him, I had all of these awful dating stories to write about or weird random things happening to me when I'd go out in public places, but since we've been together, I obviously don't have the awful dating stories, and my weird things happening in public seems to be on the decline as well.  Sure, there are still weird/funny things that happen that I should probably be writing about, but I've had a few other things on the 'ol brain lately. 

For example:

• OUR WEDDING.  Heller, it's five months from Monday.  Luckily it's pretty much done, we're just playing the waiting game now until probably a few weeks before the wedding.  I should write a post about all of our fun wedding stuff, huh?   
• Flights and Kites; I'm planning a fundraiser in February, one month almost to the date, before our wedding.  Things haven't quite gone as planned with this event...  First, we booked a venue only to have the venue go out of business a few months after booking it.  Along with the business going out, we lost our deposit.  [WE'RE A NON-PROFIT!  We don't have money to lose!!]   OY.  So because the space was booked far enough in advance we were able to look at other options.  Everything is so expensive though.  We got a steal with our original space....damn.  Also, because we had to find a new space, we've had to deal with a lot of insurance issues, rental drama, and now we're trying to figure out how to decorate our new space.  It will all work out, but it has been a little stressful lately!
• I'm moving.  There's the big one that's been causing me some anxiety lately!  Not because I'm not excited to move, but because with moving, that meant that I had to tell my current employer that I was moving and that I'll eventually have to put my house on the market.... 
• I'm doing some updates to my house.  Nothing major.  Luckily my house is cute :).  I just needed to replace the nasty linoleum in my bathrooms.  Ew.  I'll take some before and afters, don't you worry!
• We're doing some updates to Lincoln's house.  Lincoln's house is very cute.  It's also on the older side.  He replaced the orange carpeting in his house prior to me coming into the picture (THANK GOD), but his bathroom is a little (and by a little, I mean a lot) outdated.  So, at the beginning of next year, we're doing a complete remodel in the bathroom.  If anyone tries to tell you that bathroom updates are cheap, they're lying.
• My nephew.  Duh, he's new and cute and cuddly and I just want to hang out with him and stuff. And also, he's growing like a weed!

• All of my friends are either getting married or are knocked up.  It's true.  It's that time of year when everyone and their dog decided to either get hitched or to have a baby!  Next year is going to be VERY busy.  In the last month or so, I've had 4 friends get engaged!

So, that's about it from me!

fritos.

My dad has had a strange obsession with fritos lately.  Yes, fritos, like the corn chip thingys.

He also has taken a liking to posting "recipes" on twitter and facebook.

Here are some of his recent posts:

"Here's a ham sandwich idea for a little variety.  Get a small bag of frito's and put on top of the sandwich.  Like a soft taco with a hard shell"

"I've had requests for more quick sandwiches.  Soft tortilla shell, 2 slices smoked turkey, 1 slice pepperjack cheese, 2 oz salsa, add fritos, wrap, enjoy"

(*Don't you like how specific he is with the 2oz of salsa...he later found out that 2oz was probably a little too much)

I suggested that he should send some of these delicious recipes to Frito lay or at the very least start a collection of the recipes to showcase different ways to eat fritos.

Currently, he's brainstorming a dessert with fritos...something resembling fried ice cream.

Sadly, me posting this blog post will probably just encourage him to come up with new ideas.  Oddly enough, he "says" he hasn't tried any of his creations...I don't know if I believe him. 

Because it's harvest season, my dad has some spare time to commit to creating these new recipes in between hauling loads of corn and soybeans to the bins.  He also has time to take pictures of himself to post onto twitter and facebook.

This was taken when he was unloading a truck.  Yes, he has on sunglasses and goggles.  It's to keep dust an stuff out of his eyes, duh.

Isn't he a gem...

i just kept running.

So last night I was out for a run and as I was running past this house that I normally run by, this girl yells out to me:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

I looked around to see if she might have been talking to someone else, but no.  No one else around.

My only conclusions are that:

A) She thought I looked like someone else.

B) She saw me talking to their dog that is always tied to a tree.

or, most likely this one

C) She saw me running and could tell by the way that I run that I am NOT a runner.

via

my old job

So I haven't much talked about my old job. 


The one that I hated and the one that made me cry most days. 


I hated that place.  Hated. I don't use the word "hate" very often, but this place deserves it.

Luckily my current job is great and the people that I work with are awesome, especially compared to most of the nutjobs at my last place of employment.


Recently, this random guy found out about my previous employment at my last job on Linked In and was considering taking a position with the company.  He wanted my take on the place.


I was brutally honest with him and told him that it was quite possibly the worst place that I had ever worked at and to not take the job.  I told him that I didn't think there was an amount of money worth it to move to Kansas from California to make this place worth the move.  Not only were (most of) the people I worked straight up crazy, but my boss was the most rediculous man I have ever encountered. (he didn't take the job, btw)


The old boss, we'll call him Doug, for kicks (oh wait, that's his real name...), would always be on the phone, most commonly screaming at the person on the other end.  He would also take the person on the phone on field trips to the bathroom while on the phone. 


As luck would have it my desk was within earshot of the bathroom.  So not only would I get to hear Doug moaning while taking a poo, but I could also get caught up on the latest happenings of the business because of his habit of talking on the phone while in the shitter.


Even though Doug is in his late 50's I would guess...he would attempt to dress like a 20-something, most likely to pick up the ladies' in the 20-something age range.  Because, ya know, girls that age want to date someone who could be their dad, right? (And for some reason they actually did date him...he would give them an expensive car to drive and take them shopping often, but who's asking?)


Tight button-up shirts that showed off his nipples were common along with expensive denim and these pointy-elf like shoes that made his feet look ginormous.  Because the shirts were often a smudge too tight, he would often pop open a button thus exposing his belly button.  Such a treat.


Doug would also come back from lunch, sit in my office and pick his teeth or his fingernails with my scissors or a post-it note that he'd find on my desk.


For Christmas one year I gave him a manicure set and some dental floss and he didn't understand why.


I should have known from my very first interview that this place was going to be a train-wreck waiting to happen.


First of all the "HR" manager was wearing skin tight denim jump suit with Louis Vuitton  logos all over it.  Now, I'm not sure, but I don't think that was an original Louis Vuitton garment...


Second of all, while in my interview Doug was asking about how I handled working with different people.  I, of course said that working with different people was no problem for me.  To which he replied: "Good.  Because you'll be working with Grace and she's a F-ING B*TCH." 


Tell me, why didn't I just get up and leave right then? 


Instead, I stuck it out for a little over a year at that place.


The few of us that did get along made the place as fun as we could and came up with a lot of stories and activities to keep us busy.

...And, a lot of Family Fued on the internets.

Or we'd take an extra long lunch break downtown during March Madness to watch Basketball games.

Now, it may sound like we were a bunch of slackers, but we rarely could take lunch breaks away from our desks, let alone together, just in case the whole world were falling apart, and we needed to be by the phone.  We also worked longer hours, so our slacking off evened itself out. 

Would I do this stuff in a normal work-setting? Hell no.  But this was not a normal work setting.


One of my old coworkers somehow managed to stick it out at this place longer than most of us...so she would send me stories occasionally, just to keep me entertained, here are a couple:

• I just walked into Doug’s office, and he turns around and looks at me, with an enormous wad of toilet paper band-aided onto his face. He stepped out, presumably to use the toilet, and I asked Shaun what happened, to which he replied: He said that he was driving to work, and his face just started bleeding.  Riggghhhtt…I have a horrible time w my spontaneous face hemorrhaging as well. Can totally relate.

• Johanna. OH Johanna. I cannot put my bagel in the toaster in the morning, or my lean cuisine in the microwave at lunch, without her 6 course Julia Childs meal spread out all over kingdom come. This morning, she was busy splaying out a collection of jelly, butter and cream cheese for her English muffin, as well as a collection of juices, a 6 pack of eggs…I was like, what the sh*t? Eat at home. It’s so obnoxious. Lunch, she has an effing double-decker sandwich obviously planned, as she busts out enough sandwich material on the table to rival Subway.  I want to get into the silverware drawer, but there she stands, blocking it while she struggles with removing the lid to her rootbeer bottle. Drink coke, out of a can, like the rest of America.

• Doug just sent me an email, asking me to “find a typewriter, and type it up.” Find a typewriter? What is this, 1915?

 Oh, how I miss that place for the good stories...

meet the cutest little dude ever

I became an aunt for the first time late Tuesday night!

My sister (and her husband) went into labor almost two weeks early.

Meet Mason Wade!

He was born at 1050pm on September 13th weighing in at a whopping

6 lbs 14oz and was 19 1/2" long

My poor sister had to push for around 4 hours :(.  The little stinker didn't want to make an appearance quite yet I guess!

He is the cutest baby ever.  I swear. No bias here!

oh, hello

I'm here!

I've just been neglecting this blog lately....

I've been busy planning my wedding, planning another event, and trying to keep my crazy dog out of trouble.

Just so you don't feel like you're completely out of the loop, here's what's been going on:

1. My sister is having a baby in a month; he will be my first nephew!
2. My dog turned two last week and I swear to God she's going through the terrible two's.  I think she's had more accidents and has been crazier than ever this past weekend.
3. I pretty much planned our entire wedding in just over 1 week.
4. I ran into a rolling rack of clothes at work over a week ago and came away with a nasty bruise (that's still here) and a knot on my ankle the size of a ping-pong ball.
5. My dad has twitter and this weekend he figured out how to tweet from his iphone.  It's been interesting....and he doesn't quite have all of the kinks worked out.
6. In addition to planning my wedding, I'm planning a big fundraiser exactly one month before my wedding.  I have a feeling I'll be drinking a lot during those two months.
7. I really suck at words with friends, but I keep playing even though I always lose. :( (hint, hint, friends, you could let me win every once in awhile)
8. I am so excited for football season and cooler weather (and to be done mowing my yard for the year even though Lincoln has done it the last two times...)
9. I have gone to sooo many concerts this summer, one was outside on a very hot day and I'm fairly certain that I could've rung sweat out of my dress.
10. That's it.  I'll hopefully post more soon! :)